Boxing may replace European football in volatile Dagestan

Moscow - Russian boxing promoter Vladimir Hrunov has vowed to give sports fans in the southern region of Dagestan something to shout about after the local football team was deprived of the right to host European matches.

On Tuesday, European football’s governing body declared the province unfit to hold Europa League games for Russian Premier League side Anzhi Makhachkala due to safety concerns.

A UEFA commission decided in a June 30 meeting in Kiev that an alternative to the stadium in Makhachkala must be found due to the threat posed by the region’s Islamist insurgency.

But Hrunov wants to demonstrate the safety of the city by staging top-level boxing there in the form of IBO light welterweight champion Khabib Allakhverdiev’s next title defence.

“The UEFA officials who banned Anzhi from playing home games in Makhachkala are allowing themselves to make honest mistake,” Hrunov said.

“And I will be surely planning everything in such a way as to arrange the next fight of Allakhverdiev in Makhachkala.”

He insisted the fight would be welcomed by local sports fans.

“Russia is a multinational country, consisting of many parts. And Makhachkala, having no problems with public order, is inhabited by industrious people, for whom Anzhi matches as well as the fights of Khabib are pleasure.”

No opponent or date has been aired for the proposed bout.

Allakhverdiev, 29, has won all of his 16 fights since making his debut against Miguel Ortiz at Madison Square Garden in 2007, which started a streak of six wins in seven months.

He stopped former IBF, WBO and WBA champion Nate Campbell in September and followed it up by beating Ignacio Mendoza in Moscow in February for the seventh knockout of his career. Allakhverdiev won the IBO belt in June, beating South African Kaiser Mabuza in the fourth round in Moscow.

–IANS/RIA Novosti

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