Osleys Iglesias (left) and Petro Ivanov (right) flank Eye of the Tiger promoter Camille Estephan (center) – Photo by Vincent Ethier
The calm before the storm. A tornado is coming and undefeated Petro Ivanov aims to silence it.
The undefeated German-based super middleweight will square off with fast-rising Osleys Iglesias in the main event on Thursday on ESPN+ at the Montreal Casino, Montreal.
“I have a unique boxing style, Iglesias has never fought a fighter like me,” Ivanov (18-0-2 knockouts) said at Tuesday’s press conference. “I’m not a piece of cake. I’m going to give a big fight on Thursday.”
The 28-year-old has been a professional for a decade and fights at home, where he’s 9-0-2.
His big break came when he went on the road to France and stopped the highly rated Louis Toutin (TKO 9). He then found a new home in Germany, but although he continued to fight, he couldn’t get a bigger fight and was inactive for 12 months heading into this fight.
“I haven’t fought in a long time because I wasn’t getting the fights I wanted,” he explained. “My manager gave me this opportunity and I immediately took up this fight.”
And he hopes to use this shot at one of the top 168-pounders to further his own claims.
“I always dream of being a world champion and I want to present myself at the international level,” he said.
Iglesias, rated No. 3 by The Ring at super middleweightwas a talented amateur in his native Cuba before turning professional in Germany in 2019. In just his sixth fight, he dominated fading former two-time world title challenger Isaac Chilemba (UD 12). The 26-year-old southpaw moved on by stopping Ezequiel Maderna (KO 1), Andrii Velikovskyi (TKO 10) and Artur Reis (KO 4).
After signing with Eye of The Tiger, he scored first-round knockouts of respected contenders such as Marcelo Coceres and Evgeny Shvendenko after starting to fight in Canada. His final opponent was Sena Agbeko, who made it through the opening round but was quickly defeated in the second.
Iglesias-Ivanov, plus undercard bouts, will be on ESPN+ and punchinggrace.com at 6:30 PM ET/3:30 PM PT and on TVA Sports in Canada starting at 7:00 PM
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Osleys Iglesias is looking for a tougher test in his clash against Petro Ivanov on Thursday
Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at (email protected).
