World ranked junior middleweight Kanat Islam will battle tough Brazilian Robson Assis in the scheduled 10-round co-feature bout on Friday night, February 17th at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. The bout will support the previously announced 12-round bout featuring legendary Roy Jones Jr. battling Bobby Gunn.
Islam of Kazakhstan, who now calls Pahokee, Florida home has a record of 22-0 with 18 knockouts and is currently ranked number-4 by the WBA, number-5 by the WBO and number-15 by the IBF.
The 32 year-old Islam is a 5 year-professional who holds victories over Humberto Toledo (41-8-2), former world title challenger Francisco Cordero (29-2), Juan De Angel (18-3-1) and his last bout when he went home to Kazakhstan and pounded out a 12 round unanimous decision over Patrick Allottey (34-2) on October 29th.
Islam is a former WBA Fedecaribe and current WBA Fedelatin and WBO Inter-Continental Super Welterweight champion.
Assis of Sao Paulo, Brazil has a record of 16-3 with 9 knockouts. Assis is a former Brazilian Welterweight champion and former interim WBO Latino champion.
He won the Interim WBO Latino title with a 12-round unanimous decision over Christian Romero (13-3) and retained with a 12-round unanimous decision over Hector Santana (21-4).
Assis’ only 3 losses have come to world class fighters Jeff Horn (8-0-1), Samuel Vargas (22-2-1), and his last bout when he was stopped by Steven Butler (16-0-1) on July 7th in Montreal.
In a 10-round battle for the WBF Junior Lightweight International championship, Frank De Alba will take on Ivan Najera.
DeAlba, 29 years-old of Reading, PA has a record of 20-2-2 with 9 knockouts.
The 6-year pro has wins over Andrew Bentley (1-0), Benjamin Burgos (1-0), Benjamin Gomez Uribe (16-3), and is last bout when he stopped Kiun Evans (12-2-1) in 2 rounds on September 9th in Reading, PA.
De Alba is also a former UBF All-Americas Super Featherweight champion.
Najera, 24 years-old of San Antonio, Texas has a record of 16-3 with 8 knockouts.
Najera is a 6-year professional, and has quality victories over Pedro Martinez (2-0), Jerry Fuentes(2-0), Angel Hernandez (8-1) & Stan Martyniouk (13-1). Najera has stepped up the competition but has fallen short to Felix Verdejo (17-0), Saul Rodriguez (18-0-1) and his last bout when he was stopped in 2 rounds by former world title challenger Raymundo Beltran on May 21st in Laredo, Texas.
WBC Asian Council Welterweight champion Neeraj Goyat (8-2-2, 2 KO’s) of Chandigarh, India will make his American debut against an opponent to be named in bout scheduled for 8-rounds
Also seeing action will be local favorite Joey Tiberi, Jr. (13-2, 6 KO’s) of Newark, Delaware takes on Bryan Timmons (5-8, 5 KO’s) lightweight bout scheduled for 6-rounds.
Samuel Teah (9-1-1, 3 KO’s) of Philadelphia will battle Jesus Lule (9-20-1, 1 KO) of Fort Myers, Florida in a 6-round super lightweight bout.
