By Alexey Sukachev

The World of Boxing, almost undisputedly the biggest Russian promotional company, led by boxing tycoon Andrey Ryabinskiy, has a number of stars in its ledger, including such names as Alexander Povetkin, Denis Lebedev, Grigory Drozd and Eduard Troyanovskiy.

However, those stellar names are slowly reaching their 40’s. Povetkin is 37, and so are Drozd and Lebedev. Troyanovskiy is one year their junior.

WoB is in need of new, fresh faces that can be developed in novae or supernovae in future to come. Trying to gain more power, the World of Boxing has announced signings of two former amateur standouts.

Alexey Yegorov is 25 and competed as a heavyweight (201 lbs), an analogue of the cruiserweight division in prizefighting. Yegorov is 2013 Russian and European champion. He spent 2014 and 2015 fighting in AIBA Pro League and garnered his Olympic spot by beating famous Italian Clemente Russo on a majority decision (77-75, 77-75, and 76-76) in January 2015.

He wasn’t granted his well-earned spot, however, being replaced by Evgueny Tischenko who went on to become Russia’s only Olympic gold medalist in 2016 Rio.

Super heavyweight Andrey Afonin is 27. He was successful as a junior amateur, suffered several setbacks in 2013 and 2014 but regained his skills later on to be mildly successful at unpaid ranks the following two years.