BATTLEGROUND ASIA: SINGH AND ZULIPIKAER MAKE WEIGHT
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 04 Aug 2017
MUMBAI, INDIA ? Two unbeaten super middleweights are set to battle on August 5 to decide who is really the best in the Asian region. Hometown hero Vijender Singh (8W-0L,7KO?s), the WBO Asia-Pacific titlist will have the crowd cheering for him in his twelve round bout against China?s Zulipikaer Maimaitiali (8W-0L-1D,6KO?s), who holds the WBO Oriental belt.
The 31 year old Singh is the flagship of the huge boxing buildup here in the Indian subcontinent. He is an accomplished amateur boxer, having won bronzes in the 2008 Olympics and 2009 World Championships and a gold in the 2010 Asian Games. The 23 year old Maimaitiali is a southpaw from Urumqi. He is one of China?s up and coming stars and will be fighting outside of China for the first time. He is a fixture of the fight cards co-promoted by Seca and Top Rank.
During the official weigh-in held at the NSCI Stadium which will be the fight venue on Saturday, Singh came in at 167.5 lbs while Maimaitiali was a quarter of a pound lighter.
The fights will be supervised by the Professional Boxing Commission (PBC), International and the WBO title bout supervised by WBO VP for Asia Pacific Leon Panoncillo.
There will be two Filipinos figuring in the undercards: Alan Tanada (146.25lbs) will be pitted against Neeraj Goyat (144.5lbs) of India for the latter?s WBC Asia welterweight title.
Larry Abarra, a Pinoy expat based in Dubai will face Indian Asaf Asif Khan in a four round non-title bout.
Completing the cast are Indians Kuldeep Dhanda vs Sachin Bhot (4 rounds), Dharmender vs Isaac Slade (Australia) ? 6 rounds, Pardeep Kharera vs Wanpichit Siriphana (Thailand)- 6 rounds, Jitender Kumar vs Thaet Likhitamporn (Thailand0 ? 4 rounds, Akhil Kumar vs Ty Gilchrist (Australia)- 4 rounds.
Photo ? WBO Oriental super middleweight titlist Zulipikaer Maimaitiali of China (left) and WBO Asia-Pacific super middleweight titlist Vijender Singh pose after the weigh-in.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rene Bonsubre, Jr..
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