His Excellency Turki Alalshikh has added Serhii Bohachuk to the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk II card on December 21st in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Bohachuk’s opponent hasn’t been revealed yet, but he’s expected to be a highly-ranked contender.
The former WBC interim junior middleweight champion Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs) lost his title to Vergil Ortiz Jr. by a twelve-round majority decision on August 10th in a very close fight in Las Vegas. Vergil Jr. decided he didn’t wish to give Bohachuk a rematch.
Turki’s Reputation for Competitive Fights
Turki’s cards involve competitive match-ups, so Bohachuk should get someone good. Bohachuk may have scared away a lot of the interesting options in the top 15 at 154. However, if Turki can offer good money to one of the highly-ranked contenders, Bohachuk should be able to get someone good.
Ideally, Vergil would change his mind and agree to face Bohachuk, but he probably won’t. He wants the Terence Crawford payday, and if he faces Bohachuk again, he might lose.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a gimme opponent. Bohachuk deserves to be on these big cards. I’m happy to see Turki Alalshikh take notice of Serhii Bohachuk because I thought that was a really close fight with Vergil Ortiz,” said Paulie Malignaggi to the ProboxTV YouTube channel, reacting to Serhii Bohachuk being added to the December 21st Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk II card in Riyadh.
The Ortiz Rematch That Never Was
“I really thought a rematch would be in order. If a rematch is not going to be made, Bohachuk being put on these big events keeps him rolling and keeps him in the mix for the big fights. Who is he going to fight? I thought the Ortiz rematch would have been the most logical thing if you weren’t trying to push so hard for this Crawford-Ortiz fight, which I don’t think does a lot for anybody.”
It doesn’t look like Crawford will be facing Vergil next. However, Vergil still won’t take the fight with Bohachuk because he finally fought someone that he couldn’t knockout, and he wasn’t comfortable getting hit back.
As the saying goes, ‘You can dish it out, but you can’t take it. Vergil Jr’s face looked beaten, and he clearly didn’t want a second helping of that.
“Bohachuk-Ortiz would have been a great common sense move. Who do you do it now? Do you do a battle between the two guys that lost close, competitive fights, Madrimov vs. Bohachuk?” said Malignaggi. “I can’t see Turki Alalshikh putting Bohachuk in a stay-busy fight.
“He’ll reward you by getting you on these big platforms in Riyadh Season. Obviously, those rewards come with a catch. You got to fight a tough fight, and that’s typically what he’s done and there’s been a lot of upsets on these shows.”
Matching Bohachuk against the recently beaten Israil Madrimov would be a good fight if none of the other top-tier contenders want to fight him. It would be a fight between two guys arguably coming off robbery losses, and that would make it more interesting.
“I look forward to finding out who Bohachuk is going to fight because I have no doubt it’ll be a solid match-up,” said Malignaggi.
