By Monwabisi Jimlongo
Asanda Gingqi is scheduled to fight against Russian Olympic gold medallist Albert Batyrgaziev in Russia next month.
This fight pits two unbeaten boxers against each other with Gingqi, a current South African featherweight champion, having won all his seven bouts with five of them being knockouts while Batyrgaziev has stopped his four opponents. The shootout is going to take place on Friday, 24 December.
Gingqi, who won the national featherweight title when he defeated Capetonian Abdul-Aziz Kunert by a split decision in September, will be fighting for the first time outside South Africa.
On the other hand, the 23-year-old Russian southpaw made history in August when he became the first professional boxer to win an Olympic gold medal. The former kickboxer beat American Duke Ragan at the Tokyo Olympics in Japan.
Batyrgaziev will go to the Gingqi fight after he stopped Albanian-Italian Suat Laze in the second round to win the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) European featherweight title early last month.
Meanwhile, Gingqi from Mdantsane is going to become the second South African boxer to meet Batyrgaziev.
The Russian, whose impressive amateur record reads 52 wins with six stoppages and three losses, stopped Sibusiso Zingange in Russia in January this year.
