Ajagba is ready to fight any serious challenger
Nigerian contender Efe Ajagba (19-1, 14 KOs) defended his WBC Silver heavyweight title with a fourth-round stoppage over Australia’s Joe Goodall (10-2-1, 9 KOs) Saturday evening at Tahoe Blue Event Center in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
Ajagba and Goodall fought as amateurs in 2014, with Goodall earning a decision. This time, however, Ajagba demonstrated just how much better he's gotten.
Ajagba is now ready and willing to face the best fighters of his weight class.
“It’s been long. I was out of boxing for a long time. When I came back with Stephen Shaw {in January 2023}, my confidence was not there. I had just come back from surgery, and I had to get back into shape. But right now, I came back with full confidence. That’s why I took him out," Ajagba said.
“{My team} pushed me in training camp. They made me work extremely hard in this camp to make sure I win the fight. I sparred a lot of different guys to make me stay strong.
“Whoever they offer me to fight, I’m ready to go. I will go back with my team to talk about that.”
Meanwhile, Ajagba has been ranked among the top up and coming heavyweight prospects in boxing outside of the reigning world champions and top contenders.
Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury hold all the world heavyweight titles between them, with Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua holding the No.1 and No.2 contender spots.
However, below the level of world champs and former world champions, British Boxing News have ranked the top five future title contenders.
Efe Ajagba (19-1, 15KO)
‘The Silent Roller’ represented Nigeria in the Rio 2016 Olympics and has won a WBC Silver heavyweight title as a pro. It wasn’t long ago that Efe Ajagba was a name in the running to face Tyson Fury when he was struggling to find an opponent.
His roll of the dice against the aforementioned Frank Sánchez saw him beaten comprehensively by a faster, more reactive, harder-punching fighter on the night. He was knocked down in the seventh after keeping his head in the firing line for too long.
He came back strongly from that sole defeat to score a routine knockout win over Jozsef Darmos. He followed this up with an impressive victory against 18-0 Stephen Shaw, then he took the WBC Silver from Zhan Kossobutskiy, with all three wins coming within a year, from August 2022 to August 2023.
In his last fight on November 4, the hard-hitting Nigerian heavyweight contender stopped Australia’s Joe Goodall in the fourth round of their 10-round main event at Tahoe Blue Event Center in Stateline, Nevada.
Filip Hrgović (16-0, 13KO)
The 31-year-old undefeated Croatian is currently the mandatory challenger to Oleksandr Usyk’s IBF World title.
In his last two bouts, he has defeated Zhilei Zang by unanimous decision, albeit in a very close fight that some had the Chinese heavyweight just edging, and his last win was over unbeaten Aussie Demsey McKean, in a 12th-round knockout with just two minutes left to go in the fight.
Frank Sánchez (22-0, 15KO)
The Cuban No.1 has had 10 10-rounders in a row, with six ending early. ‘The Cuban Flash’ was an outstanding amateur and is more than ready for a word title shot, having already defeated Efe Ajagba, Christian Hammer and Carlos Negrón, who were 66-11 between them.
Jared Anderson (16-0, 15KO)
Jared ‘Big Baby’ Anderson has a fine record of 16 wins, all but one coming by way of knockout, but it’s that sole points victory that has raised question marks over this 23-year-old’s prospects.
Arslanbek Makhmudov (17-0, 16KO)
The Russian ‘Lion’ is a big, heavy clubber who has already won NABF and WBC Silver heavyweight titles.The 34-year-old, based in Canada, has only been taken the distance by the durable Carlos Takam, but even he was knocked down twice in the process.
