Nearly a year removed from a wipeout loss to Adonis Stevenson in their rematch, former light heavyweight title challenger Andrzej Fonfara is due back in the ring on June 16th, taking on Ismayl Sillakh in Fonfara’s birthplace of Warsaw, Poland.
Fonfara (29-5, 3 KO) gave Stevenson arguably the toughest out of his reign the first time around, but found himself on the wrong end of early knockouts in two of his last three fights. After standout performances against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Nathan Cleverly, Fonfara lost a shocker to Joe Smith Jr. in just 2:32. He bounced back with a come-from-behind finish of Chad Dawson, only to lose the aforementioned Stevenson rematch in two.
Sillakh (25-5, 19 KO) was once a well-regarded figure in the division before a stunning upset loss to Denis Grachev. Then, interspersed with wins over marginal competition, came losses to Sergey Kovalev (KO-2), Maksim Vlasov (TKO-3), Mateusz Masternak (UD), and most recently another kickboxing convert in Aleksei Papin (KO-1).
Fonfara is still in the WBC top 10 and the division is a wee bit top-heavy, but does anyone actually believe Fonfara can make a run again?
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