Amer Abduallh REVEALS Badou Jack Title Defence Could Feature In The Next Saudi Arabian Boxing Event
Newly Crowned Champion Badou Jack Could Make First Defence In September/October On A Skills Challenge Event
Skills Challenge Entertainment’s newest signing is in line to headline the Kingdom’s next boxing event.
Amer Abdullah, the head of boxing at Saudi Arabian company ‘Skills Challenge Entertainment’ has indicated in an interview with Boxing King Media that their next boxing event will likely be in the third Quarter of 2023 with September or October (not in the third Quarter but still mentioned) most likely.
Skills Challenge’s latest signing, Swedish three-weight champion Badou Jack (28-3-3, 17 KOs), who won the WBC Cruiserweight world title with a twelfth-round stoppage over Illunga Makabu, could feature on the show.
Abdullah has revealed that they were planning a Makabu rematch but Jack was ordered to face his mandatory challenger, Germany’s Noel Gevor Mikaelyan (26-2, 11 KOs), so that fight could materialise next. Abdullah, however, said there were no concrete plans in place yet for that bout and other fights could instead take place next for Jack.
“We’re gonna sit and see what makes the most sense for everybody. It might make sense that there’s other fights that we can take that are bigger and a little bit more significant in that division”.
The Skills Challenge head hints that although the mandatory has been called, it isn’t necessarily the next fight for Badou Jack and unifications in the division are also possible.
Chris Billam-Smith (17-1 12KOs) will challenge WBO Champion Lawrence Okolie (19-0, 14 KOs) at the 11,000-capacity Vitality Stadium, in Bournemouth on Saturday 27th May, live on Sky Sports.
WBA champion Arsen Goulamirian (27-0, 18 KOs) is yet to finalise his plans but could await the winner of Okolie-CBS and would alternatively be available to face Jack in Sep/Oct in a unification bout.
Australia’s Jai Opetaia, who is the IBF champion, is expected to defend his title against mandatory Mateusz Masternak with a date to be confirmed.
All three champions may be available for a unification but whether the mandatory can be postponed and a unification fight or a separate bigger fight can be agreed upon is yet to be seen.