01.09.05 – A 12-round title bout matching world-ranked lightweight Luis Arceo of Tijuana, Mexico, against Rustam Nugaev of Los Angeles joins Atlanta’s world-rated lightweight Ebo Elder, undefeated heavyweight Sultan Ibragimov of Russia and welterweight Merhav Mohar of Israel in championship bouts on the card promoted by Guilty Boxing in association with Sampson Lewkowicz and sponsored by Nafta Moskva Sept. 16 in The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Ga..
Also on the card Sept. 16 will be five World Kickboxing Association Mixed Martial Arts and Muay Thai championship matches, one featuring Sean Sherk and another spotlighting Steve Headden of Atlanta, for a total of nine title bouts.
Tickets, priced at $20, $40, $60, $100 and $150, are available at The Arena at Gwinnett Center box office from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Eastern) Monday through Friday or by calling 770-813-7600 during those days and hours. Tickets also are available at Georgia TicketMaster locations (Publix and Tower Records), by calling TicketMaster at 404-249-6400 or 800-326-4000 and at ticketmaster.com
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with the first bout at 7.
Arceo and Rustam battle for the vacant World Boxing Association Fedecentro lightweight championship.
The 26-year-old Arceo has a record of 19-2-2 with 13 knockouts and is ranked No. 29 by the World Boxing Council, a rating that is certain to go up if he captures that title.
Arceo won the WBC’s Fecarbox super lightweight championship during 2003 and added the WBC’s Fecarbox lightweight title last year.
The 22-year-old Nugaev, originally from Russia, has a record of 14-4 with six knockouts.
Other 12-round fights on the card include Elder, dubbed “The X-treme Machine,” in a WBA lightweight title-elimination bout against former two-time world champion Lakva Sim of Los Angeles and Ibragimov, who lives in Miami, Fla., defending his World Boxing Organization Asia-Pacific championship against Friday “The 13th” Ahunanya of Las Vegas.
The winner of the Elder-Sim fight meets WBA lightweight champion Diaz in a mandatory title bout.
Mohar, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., meets Xavier Tolliver of Arapahoe, N.C., in a 10-round title bout for the vacant WBC Fecarbox welterweight championship.
The 26-year-old Elder, who was born and raised in Atlanta and now lives in nearby Newnan, Ga., has a record of 22-1 with 14 knockouts and is ranked No. 5 by the WBA.
Elder, a quick and crafty southpaw, was the WBO North American Boxing Organization lightweight champion, a title he won last October, until he voluntarily relinquished it. Elder was scheduled to fight WBA lightweight champion Diaz during April on an ESPN PPV card. That fight was cancelled after Diaz suffered an injury during training.
The 33-year-old Sim, originally from Mongolia, has a record of 20-4-1 with 17 knockouts and is ranked No. 2 by the WBA. Sim was the WBA super featherweight champion during 1999 and the WBA lightweight champ last year.
The 30-year-old Ibragimov, a silver medalist for Russia at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, has a record of 17-0 with 15 knockouts and is ranked No. 8 by the WBO.
The 33-year-old Ahunanya, originally from Nigeria, has a record of 20-3-2 with 11 knockouts.
The 22-year-old Mohar, who rose to the rank of sergeant in the Israeli Army, has a record of 16-1 with 10 knockouts and has won 14 straight.
The 25-year-old Tolliver has a record of 18-4 with 11 knockouts.
WKA title matches include Sherk of Minneapolis against Joel “The Silver Babyback” Blanton of Indianapolis for the WKA MMA super lightweight championship; Surapon “Khunpon” Dechkampu of Atlanta against Chris Ngimbi of Amsterdam for the WKA Intercontinental Muay Thai super welterweight championship; Headden against David Kaplan of Arlington, Va., for the WKA United States MMA welterweight championship; Edson Diniz of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., against Dwyane “Diesel” Shelton of Richmond, Va., for the WKA Eastern Regional MMA lightweight crown; and Paulo Dantes of Fort Lauderdale against Mike Easton of Camp Springs, Md., for the WKA Eastern Regional MMA bantamweight championship.