Murat Gassiev signs with Matchroom Boxing, moves to heavyweight

Murat Gassiev has signed a promotional deal with Matchroom Boxing USA, Ural Boxing Promotion and Warriors Boxing – and will move up to Heavyweight in June as he prepares to fight on DAZN.

The 25 year old is moving up from Cruiserweight where he landed the IBF World title in June 2016 after beating Denis Lebedev in Moscow, defending it with a third round KO of Krzysztof Wlodarczyk in New Jersey in December 2017 in the quarter-final of the World Boxing Super Series and then adding the WBA crown with a dramatic final round stoppage of Yunier Dorticos in February 2018.

That victory led Gassiev to a final with Usyk in a grand unification battle in Moscow which the Ukrainian won over the distance, and Gassiev has mirrored moves made by his last opponent, Oleksandr Usyk, in teaming up promotionally with Matchroom Boxing USA and with streaming giant DAZN as his US broadcast platform.

“I am very happy to announce the beginning of cooperation between my promoters, URAL and Warriors with Matchroom Boxing USA and DAZN,” said Gassiev. “I am confident that this cooperation will bring great results. I want to make all my fans around the world happy and realize my full potential in the exciting Heavyweight division.”

“I’m delighted to welcome Murat to the team,” said promoter Eddie Hearn. “Having unified the division at Cruiserweight, I feel Murat is a very exciting addition to the Heavyweight division and what a fantastic time to join it. We have lots of fights ready made for him and I can’t wait to see him fighting at Heavyweight very soon.”

GASSIEV STOPS WLODARCZYK IN ROUND THREE(PHOTOS)

NEWARK, N.J. (October 22, 2017) – Unbeaten IBF Cruiserweight World Champion Murat Gassiev (25-0, 18 KOs)delivered a dominant third round knockout Saturday night against former champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (53-4-1, 37 KOs)in their World Boxing Super Series quarter-final matchup from Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. and on AUDIENCE Network.
With the victory, Gassiev sets up a WBSS cruiserweight semi-final showdown with WBA champion Yunier Dorticos, who was in attendance Saturday night.
“Dorticos is a very good fighter with great experience,” said Gassiev. “He’s undefeated and I can’t wait to give all the boxing fans the big gift of a great fight against Dorticos.”
“I really wanted Gassiev to win, because he’s going to taste the power of a real man against me,” said Dorticos. “His opponent tonight was past his time. I’m ready to show him what a champion looks like and give him a challenge he’s never faced before. I want to take his belt. I want to get in the ring and destroy Gassiev.”
Gassiev stalked his opponent around the ring for much of the three round fight, looking to land a big combination while Wlodarczyk was steadfastly in retreat mode. The former two-time champion threw very little other than his jab and was unable to break through and hurt Gassiev at any point in the action.
In round three, Gassiev closed the distance and began to land on Wlodarczyk eventually shooting a left uppercut and then left hook to the body combo that ended with Wlodaczyk laying on the canvas. Referee Albert Brown officially counted Wlodarczyk out at 1:57 of the third round.
“I had a great opponent tonight,” said Gassiev. “I prepared myself for a tough fight but it is boxing and anything can happen. We do a lot of work in the gym and I just listened to my coach round after round and he told me what I needed to do. That’s all I needed.”
“We worked hard to try to avoid this kind of punch but unfortunately he got a really hard shot through and hurt me,” said Wlodarczyk. “We knew how good he was and we prepared hard for it. I wanted to use the jab as much as possible. My strength is the second part of the fight and we were hoping to bring him to the later part of the fight and take advantage.”
Photos from Stephanie Trapp/Ringstar Sports

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