Serhii Bohachuk’s coach, Manny Robles, says this week’s illness-related pullout by Israil Madrimov was a “slap in the face” for his fight. Bohachuk will now be fighting British fighter Ishmael Davis (13-1, 6 KOs) on December 6th in a 12-round co-feature spot.
Illness Or Excuse?
The reason for Madrimov’s pull-out was that he had come down with a case of acute bronchitis.
The former WBA junior middleweight champion Madrimov was scheduled to fight Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs) in the co-feature slot on the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk 2 card on December 21st in Riyadh.
It was revealed last week that Madrimov was added to the February 22nd Riyadh Season card in a fight against WBC interim 154-lb champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. As soon as that fight was announced, people began to suspect that Madrimov, 29, would cancel his fight with Bohachuk because there would have been only a 63-day turn around for him to recover.
Robles was hoping that Madrimov would have pulled out sooner, but with his February 22nd fight against Vergil Jr being announced just last week, there wasn’t time for him to pull out before because he was only recently asked.
Team Disappointment
The money Madrimov will be getting for a fight against Ortiz (22-0, 21 KOs) has got to be greater than what he would have gotten to face Bohachuk. Ortiz is a bigger name in the States, unbeaten, and coming off a 12-round majority decision win over Bohachuk on August 10th. Granted, it was a controversial one, but he still got the victory, and that’s all that counts.
“Disappointed. If you ask me, disappointed. We were up next against Madrimov,” said trainer Manny Robles to Sean Zittell about him being upset that Israil Madrimov pulled out of his scheduled December 21st fight against Serhii Bohachuk last week
“I brought Bohachuk and his entire team to Guadalajara. It was great. We had a fantastic camp and were looking forward to the fight with Madrimov. I found out that he pulled out. He got sick.
“I don’t know, man. It is what it is. What are you going to do?” said Robles when asked if he believes that Madrimov is really sick. No, not at all,” said Manny when asked if he saw this coming from Madrimov.
There’s nothing Bohachuk and his team can do about it. Whether they believe the reason for the pullout by Madrimov or not, it happened, and they got to move on. They now have Ishmael Davis (13-1, 6 KOs) to fight on the December 21st card.
Davis lost a 12-round majority decision to Josh Kelly on September 21st on the undercard of Anthony Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium in London, England. He didn’t look bad for a domestic-level fighter, but he’d definitely not world class. Davis has no power and looks basic against Kelly. If this is the best they could do to find a replacement for Bohachuk to fight, you can’t say much, but he’s not a great backup.
“Slap In The Face”
“That did cross my mind. ‘Man, I hope they don’t cancel the fight.’ They did, and they magically found us another opponent on the same day he pulled out. He had another opponent already. So what does that tell you?” said Robles, sounding suspicious.
It’s a red flag that they already had a replacement opponent standing by for Bohachuk to fight, and he’s got to deal with the situation. He’s still on the card, and this is a good opportunity for him to showcase his skills against a no-hoper.
“I take it like a slap in the face. I definitely take it as a slap in the face,” said Robles about Madrimov’s pull-out. “I don’t think Serhii Bohachuk deserves to be treated this way. I thought he fought his a** off against Vergil [Ortiz Jr. on August 10th].”
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