The winner of this weekend’s ABU cruiserweight fight between Thabiso Mchunu and Johnny Muller will move straight into a fight with former world title challenger Youri ‘El Toro’ Kalenga, Rodney Berman has revealed.
The promoter said he had reached an agreement with Gary Hyde, the manager of Kalenga, who recently challenged for the interim WBA belt.
France-based Kalenga is ranked number 11 by the WBA and has fought a slew of top-rated fighters, among them Denis Lebedev, Yunier Dorticos and Mateusz Masternak.
In 2014, Kalenga captured the WBA Interim title with a 12-round split decision over Masternak in Monaco, followed with a successful title defence in Canada against unbeaten Denton Daley by way of a 12th round technical knockout.
He’s a big, heavy fighter from the DRC and offers this weekend’s winner a great shot to get back into contention.
“It goes to show that there’s a lot riding on the outcome at Emperors,” said Berman. “Kalenga comes to fight, so apart from what a win would achieve, it’s an all-action fight for the fans whether he goes against Johnny or Thabiso.”
Said Hyde: “He’s very much a live one in the division. He might have come up short in his world title fights, but he had his moments and remains a very dangerous, hungry fighter.”
Interestingly, Muller has attracted World Sports Betting odds of 8/10 for the win with Mchunu at 9/10. Odds for a draw are 16/1.
