Alimkhanuly, Adorno, Rodriguez join Navarrete-Villa undercard

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

Alimkhanuly’s bout will join the main event on ESPN

A number of Top Rank’s most promising up-and-comers will set the stage for Emanuel Navarrete vs. Ruben Villa on October 9th, including Kazakh Olympian Janibek Alimkhanuly and knockout artists Joseph “Blessed Hands” Adorno and Elvis Rodriguez.

Alimkhanuly (8-0, 4 KO), who beat Anthony Fowler in Rio en route to a quarterfinal finish, faces off against fellow middleweight Gonzalo Coria (16-3, 6 KO) in the co-feature. Argentina’s “Mago” has had a brush or two with decent competition, notably fighting Artur Akavov to a narrow decision loss in 2018 and beating veteran Marcos Reyes in June of last year. He’s about par for the course for “Qazaq Style” at this point in the latter’s career.

“I’ve been out of the ring for a long time, and I’m very anxious to return,” Alimkhanuly said. “I had a great training camp with Buddy McGirt and excellent sparring partners. This is the next step as I prepare to fight for a world title in the near future. I can’t wait for Oct. 9 to show my fans ‘Qazaq Style.’”

Lightweight Adorno (14-0, 12 KO) and super lightweight Rodriguez (9-0-1, 9 KO) face stiffer competition. The former, coming off a split draw Hector Garcia in January, fights Avery Sparrow (10-2, 3 KO), last seen falling to Abraham Nova in June. The latter takes on veteran spoiler Cameron Krael (17-16-3, 4 KO), who hasn’t been stopped since a 2014 loss to Jamal James.

Other fights of note include middleweight Lorenzo “Truck” Simpson (8-0, 5 KO) against Sanny Duversonne (11-0-2, 8 KO) and lightweight Bryan Lua (6-0, 3 KO) against Nelson Colon (4-3, 3 KO)