Igor Michalkin © Eroll Popova

A would-be WBO champion, Aleksy Kuziemski (18-1, 4 KO) will have to prove his importance to Universum Box-Promotion, when he faces Igor Mikhalkin (11-0, 7 KO) on May 22 in Rostock. It will be a twentieth professional performance for the 32-year-old Pole, highly rated in light heavweight rankings (WBA #8, IBF #8, WBO#14) and the second outing after the loss when he went for the WBO belt against Juergen Braehmer. The main event of the evening in Rostock is the WBA official eliminator between Ruslan Chagaev and Kali Meehan.

Kuziemski, the bronze medalist of the 2003 World Amateur Championships, will come face-to-face against 24-year-old Mikhalkin who seems to be a really demanding rival. The powerfully punching left-hander from Russia was the European junior champion in 2003. As far as the professional career, the Russian can pride himself on the impressive TKO in 2009 on DeAndrey Abron who was previously merely decisioned by a long-standing WBO champion, Zsolt Erdei.

"He's a hard rival but I only look for hard contests" – that's a short comment from the Polish light heavyweight. The fight has not been oficially confirmed by Universum as of yet but is expected to be announced within the next two weeks.


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