There will be three unbeaten heavyweights in action on Saturday night at The Prudential Center in Newark on the Shakur Stevenson-Shuichiro Yoshino card. Jared Anderson, 13-0(13) will square off with George Arias, 18-0(7), and Polish prospect Damian Knyba will face Curtis Harper.
Knyba, a towering 6’7” heavyweight, signed a multi-year deal with Top Rank earlier this year and Bob Arum said back then how excited he was about the 27-year-old. Currently 10-0(6), Knyba says it is his goal to make boxing history by becoming the first Polish fighter to win the world heavyweight title. Harper, 14-9(6) is somewhat well known to fight fans, but “The Hurt” is possibly best known for less than flattering reasons. It was back in August of 2018 when Harper made an about-turn and exited the ring a split-second after the opening bell had rang to signal the start of his bout with Efe Ajagba.
Harper made plenty of headlines, the result of the fight being a DQ in favor of the then-unbeaten Ajagba. Since that bizarre night, 34-year-old Harper has picked up a win but he is coming off a stoppage loss to Bakhodir Jalolov, who stopped Harper in four rounds last November.
Who knows what frame of mind Harper will be in when he faces Knyba? If Harper is ready to rock and roll, he might give Knyba a test. Harper sure pushed Chris Arreola hard back in 2015, Harper dropping a close decision (this was Harper’s second most famous fight).
But big things are expected of Knyba, and fans will be looking to see how powerful he is and whether he can do a job on Harper. Poland has given us some good heavyweights, such as Andrew Golota, Tomasz Adamek, and most recently, Adam Kownacki. Yet none were able to win the big one. Knyba says he will surpass his countrymen by winning a world title.
The heavyweight division is always in need of new stars/attractions. Let’s see how Knyba looks against Harper on Saturday. And let’s also hope that Harper does show up in a mood to fight.
