Heavyweight Efe Ajagba faces Oscar Rivas & Guido Vianello battles Stephan Shaw in a High Rank-promoted present on January 14th on ESPN on the Turning Stone Resort On line casino in Verona, New York. The battle card can be proven on ESPN, ESPN+, and ESPN Desports at 10:00 p.m. ET.
The highly effective 6’6″ Ajagba (16-1, 13 KOs) takes on the extremely ranked bridgerweight Oscar Rivas (28-1, 19 KOs) in a 10-round headliner in an necessary battle.
This battle will present whether or not the 28-year-old Ajagba has the expertise to a contender within the heavyweight division. If the 2016 Olympian Ajagba can’t beat the smaller Rivas, his future prospects could be poor.
Ajagba already misplaced to Frank ‘The Cuban Flash’ Sanchez by a 10-round unanimous choice final yr in October in a battle through which he didn’t make any changes.
Within the second half of the battle, Sanchez ran away with the battle, utilizing his slickness to outbox the larger, stronger Ajagba in a surprisingly simple victory.
That efficiency by Ajagba needed to have given High Rank some misgivings about his future as a result of he seemed so totally clueless in opposition to Sanchez, a fighter that he ought to have been in a position to defeat as a consequence of his energy & dimension benefit.
The 35-year-old Oscar Rivas‘ solely profession loss got here in opposition to British heavyweight Dillian Whyte in 2019 in London, England. Rivas knocked Whyte down and was getting the higher of him in lots of the rounds.
However like in Whyte’s latest controversial victory over Jermaine Franklin final weekend, Rivas discovered himself on the receiving finish of a hometown choice.
Rivas even had Whyte hurt within the twelfth, solely to have the referee cease the motion to provide Dillian a breather after he mistakenly thought he’d landed a low blow as a substitute of a shot that was on the belt line.
If Rivas nonetheless has something left, there’s a good chance that he’ll outbox Ajagba and beat him by a choice.
Within the chief assist bout, the Italian 2016 Olympian heavyweight Guido “The Gladiator” Vianello (10-0-1, 9 KOs) meets up with the unbeaten American Stephan Shaw (18-0, 13 KOs) in a 10-round battle.
The 6’6″ Vianello has some pop in his punches, however he hasn’t proven the flexibility that may counsel he can be a serious participant within the heavyweight division. The 28-year-old Vianello was held to a six-round draw in opposition to Kingsley Ibeh in 2020, which was an indication of an uphill climb to turn out to be a contender.