by James Slater: Two heavyweights, one British, one British-based, are down on Boxrec as returning to action on the upcoming September 25th card in Manchester that will be headlined by John Murray Vs. Andriy Kudriavtsev for the EBU lightweight crown.
Tough Pole Albert Sosnowski, coming off his brave but losing effort against WBC heavyweight king Vitali Klitschko in May, will face a TBA in an eight-rounder, and local man Tyson Fury will have his first fight back after that swelteringly tough rematch win over John McDermott in June; also against a TBA and over an as yet undetermined number of rounds.
Sosnowski earned himself some more fans with his gritty challenge of “Dr Iron Fist,” and the performance he gave forced some people to suggest what would happen were “The Dragon” to face another top-ranked heavyweight. Can Sosnowski, 45-3-1(27) bounce back from the 10th-round stoppage loss he suffered in Germany and even get as far as challenging one of the other reigning belt holders in his division? Could WBA champ David Haye perhaps take a look at defending against the gutsy 31-year-old? It’s possible.
As for Fury, he remains one of the most well known British heavyweight prospects today, and the unbeaten 22-year-old probably added a few more fans to the ones he has already due to the bite-down courage he showed when approaching exhaustion against “Big Bad” John. Fury dug deep to get the stoppage win in the 9th-round, at a time when he looked sold out.
There was talk a while back that Fury, 11-0(9), would either face his first U.S opponent next, or maybe even engage in his first actual U.S debut next time out. The name of New York’s Vinny Maddalone was mentioned, but unless Vinny gets the call to come over to the U.K next month (on short notice), it’s unlikely this will now happen. Maddalone told this writer he would love the chance to fight in England, against Fury or anyone else, and maybe this match-up will still take place one day.
It really would have been interesting had Sosnsowki and Fury been set to meet EACH OTHER in September, but that fight would be seen as just too risky; for both guys. This too, is a match-up that could happen one day, though, and neither fighter will be allowed to get away with many “easy” fights.
For now, it will be good to see both exciting, give-their-all big men back in action – but at the same time both guys will hopefully face decent, if not great, opposition next month.