York Hall in Bethnal Green hosts a night of action this Friday night, and the are co-main events, as Archie Sharp faces Alexis Boureima Kabore, and Tursynbay Kulakhmet defends his WBC International super welterweight title against Juan Carlos Abreu.
MTK Global promote the card, and it can be seen on the IFLTV YouTube channel.
Welling-based Sharp (20-0, 9 KOs) is in search of meaningful fights, and he will hope that some are on the horizon in 2022.
Firstly though, ‘Sharpshooter’ must get through a first defence of his WBO Global super featherweight title against ‘Yoyo’ Kabore (28-4, 7 KOs).
Sharp, who is rated at #2 by the WBO behind champion, Shakur Stevenson, came of age at the back end of 2018, when he dropped Lyon Woodstock on the way to a points win, and he enjoyed a decent 2019, notching four straight wins against the likes of Jordan McCorry (UD10) and Declan Geraghty (TKO4).
2020 was a stop-start one for him though, with a razor-thin one point win over Jeff Ofori his only contest during the year.
The 26-year-old was last out in July, taking the vacant WBO Global belt, and he suffered a couple of cuts in a clear points win against Diego Andrade Chavez.
Burkina Faso’s Kabore shouldn’t provide Sharp with too much trouble this weekend.
After being knocked out on his debut, the 38-year-old went 25 fights unbeaten before Rey Vargas took every round of their 2016 meeting in Mexico.
Kabore is 3-3 in his last six contests, and is coming off an eight round loss in Nigeria to Manyo Plange, who he was due to face in a rematch that has yet to happen.
Prediction: Sharp will want to keep his name out there amongst the leading lights domestically in his division, as well as maintaining his lofty WBO ranking. Kabore shouldn’t cause the favourite too many problems, and Sharp should be able to take a wide scorecard win.
Kulakhmet clashes with Abreu
Kazakhstan’s Tursynbay Kulakhmet is on a fast track, and has wasted little time in stepping up in class since turning over.
The 27-year-old started at eight round level, and in his second fight, he picked up his current title with a one-sided, ten round points win over Macaulay McGowan.
After a one round knockout of Heber Rondon, Kulakhmet (4-0, 3 KOs) was last in action in July, stopping Aleksei Evchenko in ten.
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The Jamie Moore-trained welterweight now meets Juan Carlos Abreu (23-6-1, 21 KOs).
The Dominican is experienced, and has been in with some decent operators in losing efforts. He has only been halted once, and that was in his last fight against the highly touted Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, stopped in six in September last year.
Prediction: A stoppage win for Kulakhmet would be a statement, and the Kazakh can do just that, by the halfway mark.
O’Leary meets Ozgul
There is also a decent step up at super lightweight for Pierce O’Leary and the 21-year-old ‘Big Bang’ is in with Siar Ozgul.
O’Leary (7-0, 3 KOs) is coming off a chilling second round knockout win against Jan Marsalek, and is now in with Hackney-based Turk, Ozgul (15-6, 3 KOs), who is much in the journeyman mould now, but has has been the distance with the likes of Viktor Postol and Anthony Yigit.
Prediction: Ozgul retired after four against Paddy Donovan in his last contest, and O’Leary can break him down again in the same timeframe here.
Remaining Undercard
Sam Gilley (11-1, 5 KOs) returns from a tight loss to Danny Ball last time out, and the welterweight can take an inside schedule win against Ghana’s Daniel Lartey (14-5-1, 12 KOs).
Sean McGoldrick (10-1, 3 KOs) is also in action, and the Welshman may need the distance to see off Stephen Jackson (1-4, 1 KO).
Back where he belongs.@SamGilleyBoxing
📍 York Hall
📅 FRIDAY
📺 @IFLTV#MTKFightNight #SamGilley #GilleyLartey #BritishBoxing #BritishBoxing pic.twitter.com/1YKOyB9u6D— MTK Global Boxing (@MTKGlobal) October 25, 2021
Luton’s Jordan Reynolds (2-0) is a popular figure, and the Middleweight can take a points win against his fellow unbeaten foe, Randal Barlow (2-0).
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At cruiserweight, William Hamilton (2-0, 1 KO) can improve his knockout ratio against Ivo Zednicek (2-7, 2 KOs) who was stopped by Dan Azeez in his last fight.
Shiloh Defreitas, Joe Giles, and Lerrone Harrison all make their professional debuts on the bill.
