Michalczewski to fight rematch against Richard Hall / Lightweight king Artur Grigorian to defend title against former world champion Stefano Zoff
07.08 - Braunschweig – On September 14 Dariusz Michalczewski will take on one of the toughest opponents of his career for a second time. At Volkswagenhalle in Braunschweig the WBO light heavyweight champion will defend his title against American Richard Hall in a rematch of their first encounter that took place on 15th December of last year.
Michalczewski won that fight by technical knockout in round 11 but the end was unsatisfying for all parties because it was a huge swelling on Hall’s eye that forced the doctor at ringsite to halt the bout.
“I’m looking forward to the rematch against Hall”, Michalczewski, 46-0 (39 KOs), explained. “The end of our first fight was kind of unsatisfying. The doctor stopped it because of Hall’s swellings. However, I was clearly ahead on the scorecards at the time it was stopped and this will also be the case in the rematch.”
“Anyway, I’m willing to fight against anybody in the world. I want to face the best and Richard Hall belongs to them. Again I will use a lot of pressure and I will use my right hand more often this time. In general I want to throw less punches but land more precious.”
In April, two weeks prior to his 34th birthday, Michalczewski defended his title again and knocked out Joe de Grandis in round 2 in his Polish hometown Gdansk. The fight against Richard Hall, 25-3 (25 KOs), will be Michalczewski’s 22nd world title defense.
It will be the third rematch in the career of Dariusz Michalczewski who also fought against his German arch rival Graciano Rocchigiani as well as against Frenchman Christophe Girard twice. The Hamburg based fighter was able to score clear victories inside the distance in both rematches.
In the second main event at Volkswagenhalle lightweight king Artur Grigorian will defend his WBO crown against former world champion from Italy Stefano Zoff.
Zoff won the WBA 130 lb. title in 1999 but lost it in November of the same year when his title defense against Gilberto Serrano was stopped due to cuts in round 11. Since then Zoff won nine in a row and captured the European lightweight title last August, a title that the 36-year-old Italian already vacated.
Stefano Zoff is 38-7-2 with 16 knockouts. The WBA currently ranks him #2, the WBC has the Italian on #4.
Artur Grigorian is undefeated in 34 contests with 22 knockouts. The fight against Zoff will be the 16th WBO title defense of the 34-year-old who is champion since April of 1996.
