Bad news for anyone keen to see Chris Eubank Jr. take on Sven Elbir this weekend. Eubank and Wasserman Boxing have announced that Elbir has tested positive for COVID-19, and is out for this Saturday’s middleweight showdown at Wembley Arena in London.
But, when the boxing gods close a little-known German door? Sometimes, they open a little-known German window. And, through that window enters Anatoli Muratov (24-2-1, 17 KO), a Kazakh based out of Germany that steps up on five days notice, and who will be fighting for the third time in just 42 days.
Muratov sits comfortably at #7 in the WBA middleweight rankings, just above Michael Zerafa and Mikalai Vesialou. Muratov has been very active lately, notching a KO victory over Gyorgy Varju (7-10, 4 KO) on September 18th, and a stoppage win against Malkhaz Sujashvili (12-17, 10 KO) on August 21st. Both of those were scheduled for 6 rounds per BoxRec, but Muratov obviously didn’t need that much time to handle his business.
Sven Elbir (18-1, 14 KO) was gripping the very bottom rung of the WBA middleweight rankings at #15. Technically, one could make the argument that Muratov is a significant step up over the originally scheduled Elbir. The WBA seems to think so, and you are free to agree or disagree as you see fit.