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Mike Coppinger, ESPN Boxing Insider
Former junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov has acute bronchitis and has withdrawn from his Dec. 21 fight vs. Serhii Bohachuk in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, announced Saturday.
The 154-pound fight was set to serve as the chief-support bout to the highly anticipated Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury heavyweight championship rematch.
Uzbekistan’s Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs) remains scheduled to fight Vergil Ortiz on the Feb. 22 undercard of the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol rematch in Riyadh, Alalshikh said.
There was doubt Madrimov, 29, would be ready for such a high-stakes fight just two months later. Madrimov is ESPN’s No. 2 junior middleweight and Ortiz is No. 5. Ortiz is coming off a controversial decision victory over Bohachuk in August.
Ukraine’s Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs) will now fight Ishmael Davis. Bohachuk, 29, is ESPN’s No. 6 junior middleweight.
England’s Davis (13-1, 6 KOs) is coming off a September decision loss to Josh Kelly, the first defeat of the 29-year-old’s career.
Madrimov dropped a close decision to Terence Crawford in August.