By Gregory Stangrit
WBC cruiseweight champion, 36-year-old Russian Grigory Drozd, is seriously injured and unable to make a mandatory defense of his title against Ilunga Makabu. The fight was scheduled for April 8 in Moscow.
The entire card is put off. The co-feature would have had Cesar Rene Cuenca in a tasty rematch against Eduard Troyanovsky.
"I will not let him go forward with the fight against Makabu, because his left hand [is injured]," says promoter Andrei Ryabinsky of World of Boxing.
"The fight with Makabu will be postponed, and I think it won't happen for quite a long time because the injury to Grigory is serious. Everything will depend on how serious the damage."
Russia’s Drozd, 40-1, is without question the world’s premier cruiserweight right now. Unbeaten in 15 fights spanning 10 years, the charismatic 36-year-old captured his belt in September 2014 with a wide decision win over then 49-2 Krysztof Wlodarczyk. The upcoming fight was going to be the second defense of his world title.
Argentina’s Cuenca, then 48-0, lost his “0” and his IBO and IBF World Super-Lightweight Titles when he dropped a surprise sixth round TKO against 22-0 Troyanovsky last November. Cuence had a rematch clause, which he exercised to get the unbeaten Russian back in the ring. No word on when or where this fight will land.
Drozd spoke about the injury - "Today I did not have very good news: my fight on April 8 was canceled due to left hand injury. I received the injury two days ago in training. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the injury (tendon rupture), continued preparation can not be considered."
Gregory Strangrit covers boxing for Allboxing.ru.
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