Rakhimov out, Fuzile in for Ogawa world title clash
Earlier today Teiken reported that the planned IBF Super Featherweight title out between Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov (15-0-1, 12) [Шавкатджон Рахимов] and Kenichi Ogawa (25-1-1-1, 18) [尾川 堅一] was now dead in the water, and that instead of that bout we'll be seeing Ogawa take on South African fighter Azinga Fuzile (15-1, 9) for the vacant IBF title in the near future.
No explicit reason was given for why Rakhimov was out, though he was forced to pull out of a scheduled date with Ogawa in August due to injury, and it appears plans to reschedule to bout for October have now fallen through as well. So there's a genuine chance that Rakhimov's injury is worse than first expected.
Interestingly these three men have circled around each other for a while now. Originally we were supposed to see Ogawa and Fuzile face off in an IBF world title eliminator in 2019, which was cancelled when Ogawa decided to take a different route to a potential world title fight. That lead to Fuzile facing Rakhimov, with Rakhimov stopping the South Africa. We've now seen Rakhimov seemingly pull out of facing Ogawa leaving us with Fuzile and Ogawa now looking set to face off for the title, rather than the eliminator they were supposed to have.
Although Teiken have announced that it will be Ogawa Vs Fuzile, they didn't report a venue or a date for the bout, just that this was now the bout in the world for Ogawa.
No explicit reason was given for why Rakhimov was out, though he was forced to pull out of a scheduled date with Ogawa in August due to injury, and it appears plans to reschedule to bout for October have now fallen through as well. So there's a genuine chance that Rakhimov's injury is worse than first expected.
Interestingly these three men have circled around each other for a while now. Originally we were supposed to see Ogawa and Fuzile face off in an IBF world title eliminator in 2019, which was cancelled when Ogawa decided to take a different route to a potential world title fight. That lead to Fuzile facing Rakhimov, with Rakhimov stopping the South Africa. We've now seen Rakhimov seemingly pull out of facing Ogawa leaving us with Fuzile and Ogawa now looking set to face off for the title, rather than the eliminator they were supposed to have.
Although Teiken have announced that it will be Ogawa Vs Fuzile, they didn't report a venue or a date for the bout, just that this was now the bout in the world for Ogawa.