Madrimov Returns for Rounds After Back to Back Losses

Israil Madrimov returns this weekend for a simple reason. He needs to feel like himself again.

The former WBA junior middleweight titleholder boxes Saturday night in Las Vegas against Luis Salazar David on the Raymond Muratalla vs Andy Cruz card, streaming on DAZN. The fight is designed to let him work. Nothing more. Nothing hidden.

The last year has been punishing. Madrimov has dropped two straight decisions, both at the highest level, both fights that took something out of him. He went twelve rounds with Terence Crawford and spent long stretches controlling that fight before fading late. Eleven months later, he returned against Vergil Ortiz Jr. in Riyadh and never found the same flow. The effort was there. The effort was there. He could not sustain it.

His movement slowed early. His output stalled. The sharp combinations that usually define him never arrived.

According to his camp and promoter Eddie Hearn, that version of Madrimov came into the Ortiz fight sick. Respiratory bronchitis moved into his lungs. Training suffered. Sparring rounds were cut down. Recovery dragged. People around him pushed for a withdrawal. He refused.

He had already pulled out of a major bout once before. He did not want to do it again.

The price showed up in the ring.

Ortiz won a clear decision. Madrimov finished the fight, but it cost him. In the months that followed, he underwent surgery on his left shoulder and left knee. Issues that had lingered through camps were finally handled. The body stopped compensating. Training restarted clean.

Now comes the rebuild.

Salazar David is not here to threaten the picture at 154. He is here to give Madrimov rounds. Time. Feedback. A chance to feel his legs hold up. A chance to let his hands go without fighting for air.

At 30, Madrimov has already answered the ambition questions. He fought Crawford. He fought Ortiz. He did not protect his position. He stepped into fights that asked for everything.

This outing asks for honesty instead.

If the timing is back and the gas tank holds, bigger fights follow later this year. If it feels wrong, that information still matters. You cannot fake your way past your own body.

This bout will tell him where he stands. That alone makes it useful.

Source: Reporting and interviews originally published by The Ring.