Matchroom Boxing and Dazn revealed the undercard action for Anthony Joshua’s September 25th title defense against mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk. Leading the way is Lawrence Okolie’s (16-0, 13 KO) first defense of the WBO cruiserweight title against undefeated, but largely untested, Dilan Prasovic (15-0, 12 KO).
The most intriguing matchup outside of the main event is a ten-round welterweight fight originally scheduled for the August 7th Galahad-Dickens card, between Maxim Prodan (18-0-1, 15 KO) and Florian Marku (8-0-1, 5 KO).
Both men last fought in February of this year; Prodan earning a tenth-round TKO over Nicola Cristofori, while Marku stopped the tough and previously undefeated Rylan Charlton in the eighth round of their fight.
Also on the card is a previously announced ten-round light-heavyweight bout between Callum Smith and Lenin Castillo. In his last outing, Smith (27-1, 19 KO) lost his WBA and Ring super-middleweight titles via a one-sided unanimous decision to PFP great Canelo Alvarez. He subsequently announced a move up to light-heavyweight, and linked up with veteran trainer Buddy McGirt. September 25th will be his opportunity to show that he can compete for a world title in a division featuring the likes of Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
Lenin Castillo (21-3-1, 16 KO) has demonstrated that he can hang in with, if not necessarily threaten, the class of the light-heavyweight division. He’s dropped wide decision losses to Dmitry Bivol and Marcus Browne, but should provide a good benchmark of Smith’s potential in this new weight class.
Campbell Hatton (3-0) continues his professional development on the big stage as he takes on Izan Dura (3-7) in a four-round fight. Hatton looks to have improved bit by bit in each of his fights, but remains very much a work in progress, as one would expect.
Finally, middleweights Christopher Ousley (12-0, 9 KO) and Khasan Baysangurov (21-1, 11 KO) square off in a ten-round fight. For Ousley, this represents a bit of a step up, as he’s fought mostly in four and six-round bouts against low-level competition to this point in his career. Baysangurov has spent the majority of his career fighting in Russia and Ukraine, and suffered his lone defeat via 11th-round TKO against Rob Brant in February 2019.
