By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten WBO International Jr. Middleweight Champion Magomed Kurbanov of Russia will be taking on former WBO Jr. Middleweight boss Patrick Teixeira of Brazil over in Russia this Saturday, July 9th. The fight was supposed to take place in December but was postponed when Kurbanov pulled out due to illness. Kurbanov won the vacant title in May of last year with a unanimous 12-round decision over Liam Smith in Russia. Teixeira last fought in April when he was disqualified in the second round against Paul Cuesta for hitting him with an intentional rabbit punch. Teixeira had lost his world title to Brian Castano via a 12-round unanimous decision in February, 2021 after winning the interim belt in November, 2019 when he edged Carlos Adames by close unanimous decision after dropping him in round seven.
The 31-year-old Teixeira is a southpaw who climbs through the ropes with a fine mark of 31-3 with 22 Kos. He made his pro debut in 2009 and has 153 rounds of experience under his belt. He stands just under 6-feet-tall with a 76.5-inch reach and has pretty good power with a current knockout ratio of 66.7 per cent and also owns plenty of skills in the ring.
His first defeat came at the hands of Curtis Stevens in 2016 when he was stopped in the second round and that was basically the first time he took a step up in class opponent-wise. Teixeira won the vacant WBA Fedecentro Middleweight Title in 2012 when he stopped Samir Barbosa in the first round and then added the vacant WBC Youth Inter-Continental Super Welterweight Crown in 2012 when he stopped Omar Ramirez in the eighth round.
Teixeira captured the interim WBO Latino Super Welterweight Title in 2014 when he stopped Ignacio Fraga in 145 seconds and in 2018 he beat Davi Eliasquevici via a 10-round unanimous decision for the vacant WBO Latino Super Welterweight Crown. He’s also beaten the likes of Nathaniel Gallimore, Mario Lozano and Patrick Allotey.
The 26-year-old Kurbanov has boxed 145 rounds since making his pro debut in 2015 following a pretty good amateur career. He carries around a perfect record of 22-0 with 13 Kos which gives him a current knockout ratio of 59.1 per cent. He’s just over 5-feet-9-inches tall with an unlisted reach which sees him give up two inches in height to Teixeira.
Kurbanov has never fought outside of Russia and along the way he’s won the WBC Asian Boxing Council Silver Super Welterweight Title as well as the WBO Youth, WBO Inter-Continental, and WBO International Super Welterweight belts. Other than Liam smith though, the only other opponents most fans may have heard of are Diego Chaves, Dmitry Mikhaylenko, Akinori Watanabe and Stepan Horvath.
Prediction…
This is a hard fight to call since Teixeira is a solid, underrated boxer with skills and power but he’s on the road in Russia where many fans felt Kurbanov was handed a gift hometown decision against Liam Smith. The younger Kurbanov will need to work his way inside much the way Brian Castano did when he lifted the title from Teixeira. This is a tossup with a draw also in the mix, but I have a feeling Kurbanov will edge it at home.
