37-year-old light heavyweight Igor Mikhalkin celebrated his biggest and most important victory in the last four years on Saturday evening. In Moscow, Mikhalkin stepped into the ring against favorite Dilmurod Satybaldiev in a ten round bout – and won a convincing unanimous decision.
Mikhalkin was booked for the fight on short notice and jumped in without hesitation. With only two weeks of preparation time, in which the southpaw was already sparring, he was able to fully demonstrate his class as an underdog and shocked the favorite, who recently stopped Maxim Vlasov.
The commentators also praised Mikhalkin’s good boxing school and the agility of the former IBO world light heavyweight champion. Even a headbutt in the tenth and last round didn’t stop the ECB boxer from achieving a sovereign and unanimous point win.
After his defeat against Mathieu Bauderlique in September of last year, Mikhalkin is back just as surprisingly and after more than a year of being away from the ring and is once again knocking on the door of the world’s top light heavyweights. A rematch with Bauderlique is expected in the not-so-distant future.
Mikhalkin stated after the fight: “It feels really good to have beaten such a strong man. I didn’t feel uncomfortable for a second and was able to show my dominance.”
Promoter Erol Ceylan: “Igor accepted the fight on very short notice. He was booked for sparring, but against a southpaw and therefore not completely untrained. This success is all the better – and then against the current or probably former number six in the world!”