Brian Mitchell relishes the prospects of adding another World Boxing Council (WBC) belt to his stable as his boxer Ricardo ‘Magic Man’ Malajika will fight for the vacant junior-bantamweight title against highly-rated Japanese opponent Tomoya Tsuboi.
This opportunity came about following Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodríguez’s decision to vacate all his junior-bantamweight titles ahead of his fight against current World Boxing Association (WBA) bantamweight champion Antonio Vargas.
With Malajika rated number two and Tsuboi, who has won all his three fights with two of those wins being stoppages, occupying the number one spot in the WBC junior-bantamweight ratings, now the two boxers are set to slug it out for the vacant title.
“The WBC president Mauricio Sulaimán announced this morning (Thursday) that Ricardo and Tsuboi are going to fight for the vacant title. We are going for it and if anyone can win the WBC world title, that’s Ricardo Malajika,” Mitchell remarked.
“There’s excitement at the Brian Mitchell Boxing Academy and Golden Gloves. And it will be great to have two WBC world champions in one stable at the same time. This is going to be historic. We want to thank Golden Gloves and Mauricio.”
The Brian Mitchell Boxing Academy is the only gym that currently has a WBC champion in Siyakholwa Kuse, who won the minimumweight belt after he outpointed Filipino boxer Melvin Jerusalem at the Emperors Palace in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, last month.
Meanwhile, Mitchell, a former WBA and International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior-lightweight champion, has been with Malajika for a number of years, leading him to International Boxing Organisation (IBO) flyweight and junior-bantamweight titles.
“My wife and I have worked with Ricardo for eight years. We now know that we are going to come up against a boxer, who only has three professional fights,” Mitchell said.
On the IBO junior-bantamweight title, Mitchell remarked: “We don’t know what will happen to the title. However, we would like to thank the IBO for looking after us until now.” – Monwabisi Jimlongo
