World ranked Dmitry Mikhaylenko (20-0,9KOs) of Russia takes on former world ranked contender Karim Mayfield (19-2-1,11KOs) this Saturday. The bout will take place on the televised undercard portion of the HBO broadcast and is a 10 round welterweight bout for the vacant USBA welterweight title. The card is headlined by unbeaten unified light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev vs former champ Jean Pascal. The show will be promoted by Jean Bedard (Interbox) and Kathy Duva (Main Events). The Bell Centre in Montreal , Quebec, Canada will host the show.
Mayfield took this fight on very short notice but is said to be in very good shape. He normally fights at 140 so making 147 for this match should be no issue. Mayfield’s style is not always the most pleasing but he should give Mikhaylenko his toughest fight to date or maybe bring out the best in him. The majority of the HBO regular viewers will be more familiar with Mayfield than Mikhaylenko as Mayfield has fought on the network a few times already. This is a chance for redemption for Mayfield who didn’t look well dropping a decision to Thomas Dulorme his last time on HBO.
This is huge opportunity for Mikhaylenko who will be making his HBO debut. He like many Russians comes from a solid amateur background. The majority of his professional fights were fought in Russia before signing with Main Events a few years back. He seems to be rapidly improving looking at his last few fights. He dominated former world title challenger Sechew Powell who is obviously past his prime. His best win to date may have been his last where he stopped former world champion Johan Perez in a bout that was the main event on HBO Latino. Mikhaylenko is currently ranked by three of the four major world sanctioning bodies. A win over Mayfield is not only important to move up in the rankings but to do it impressively to improve his drawing power with the viewer’s tuning in for few appearances.
