By Peter Lim

Middleweight Radmir Akhmediyev (7-1, 6 KOs) returns to the drawing board at The Zone in Houston on Saturday after his first professional loss in November. Akhmediyev, 25, had fought exclusively against opponents with losing records prior to his suffering a crushing seventh-round KO against John Vera (12-0, 7 KOs). The Kazakh fighter has since replaced Bobby Benton with Aaron Navarro as his trainer.

“I want to show everybody in this fight that I’m not a broken fighter,” Akhmediyev said.

The card marks the first fight night staged by Savarese Boxing Promotions since its milestone Dec. 11 quadrupleheader that was televised on Showtime’s ShoBox: The Next Generation. More TV dates are being negotiated for future Savarese cards, said Lou Savarese.

“It gave us a lot of validity,” Savarese said. “We’re doing so many shows and Houston gets one of the best ratings especially when there’s a Hispanic guy on the card so it’s good for us too. We’re hoping to get our own TV dates but right now we’re partnering up with other people.”

Despite moving up to promoting bigger, televised cards, Savarese said he will continue to stage as many, if not more, local shows that has been the backbone of his organization since 2009.

“We’re one of the few promoters that have been doing steady shows. Other guys rarely do shows as often as us,” Savarese said. “Currently, we’re trying to get a license in Louisiana so we can do shows in both (states).”

In other bouts:

Junior welterweight David Limerick (5-0, 2 KOs) faces Aaron Anderson (3-39, 1 KO).

Yunier Calzada (5-0-1, 1 KO) takes on Marchristopher Adkins (6-2, 2 KOs) in a middleweight bout.

Light heavyweight Robert Silva (7-1, 5 KOs) squares off against William Johnson (11-43-2, 4 KOs).

Welterweight Craig Callaghan (9-1, 4 KOs) takes on Josue Garcia (5-3, 3 KOs).

Featherweight Luis Guevara (3-1-1, 2 KOs) faces Bobby Grant (0-2).

Bantamweight David Perez (4-0, 3 KOs) takes on Charles Clark (debut).

Maximiliano De La Rosa fights Adrian Sargent (0-1) in a welterweight bout.

And bantamweight Josue Morales (2-2-1) faces Isav Duenez (0-2)