Former junior featherweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev desperately wants to rectify the lone loss of his career by taking on the winner of the upcoming undisputed 122-pound championship between Naoya Inoue and Marlon Tapales.
Uzbekistan’s Akhmadaliev had to give up his IBF and WBA titles when he lost a surprising split decision to Philippines’ Tapales in April at Tech Port Arena in San Antonio. It was the first loss of Akhmadaliev’s career.
The Uzbek southpaw, who trains out of Indio, Calif., returned to his winning ways with a eighth-round knockout of Kevin Gonzalez last Saturday on the undercard of the flyweight unification bout between Jesse Rodriguez and Sunny Edwards at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
Now Akhmadaliev is setting his sights on fighting the winner of the 122-pound full unification bout on Dec. 26 between Tapales and Inoue at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.
“To me it’s very important, it’s the most important fight of my life, the opportunity to fight for four world titles for undisputed,” Akhmadaliev said in a video published by Matchroom Boxing on their YouTube page. “For me the most important is my two titles, because I believe that they belong to me and that’s something that I want.
“I have a huge amount of respect for both fighters. I respect every single fighter in the world. I have nothing against Tapales. I know he is not the one who scored the fight. I believe that whoever is going to win the fight I believe I can beat any of those guys.”
The 29-year-old Akhmadaliev (12-1, 9 KOs) maintains that he has grown as a fighter since the loss to Tapales.
“That was a tough lesson,” Akhmadaliev said. “I know that I won the fight, but the judges saw it differently, so they gave me a lesson: never let anything slide away from you. I started too slow. I underestimated my opponent, I made mistakes in training camp, I didn’t take him too seriously, now I change some things.
“I’m more disciplined, I don’t gain too much weight between fights and that shows. I know that physically, mentally, and technically, I’m the best guy in the division and I can prove it against anyone. If they’re saying this guy is good, I can beat him. If they’re saying this guy is the best, I can beat all of them.”
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.