Souleymane Cissokho has held the WBC “silver” title since 2022
Olympic veterans Souleymane Cissokho and Egidijus “Mean Machine” Kavaliauskas will meet in a December 7th WBC welterweight final eliminator in Equatorial Guinea.
Cissokho (17-0, 9 KO) took home bronze in Rio, sweeping his first three opponents before running afoul of eventual winner Daniyar Yeleussinov in the semis. You could charitably call his seven-year pro career “patient;” he picked up a number of decent-to-pretty-good wins over the likes of Vladimir Hernandez and Kieron Conway on the way up, but has shown little urgency to cash in the WBC “silver” belt since edging out Tulani Mbenge for it in 2022. His lone fight of the last 22 months saw him beat Isaias Lucero by decision last November.
This marks the Senegal-born, France-based Cissokho’s first pro appearance in Africa.
Kavaliauskas (24-2-1, 19 KO), who competed at both Beijing and London, is best known for a three-fight stretch that saw him fall to Terence Crawford and Vergil ORtiz Jr with a finish of Mikael Zewski in the middle. He’s been quiet in the three years since, cruising past Mykal Fox in 2022 before stopping journeyman Jose Marruffo 14 months later.
Honestly, I’m here for it. Two good-but-not-great challengers duking it out for the right to challenge a good-but-not-great champion. We’ll let you know if this gets a stateside broadcast.
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