The Congolese Junior Ilunga Makabu, WBC world champion of light heavyweight will fight the WBA world champion, the Belgian of Lebanese-Ivorian origin, Ryad Merhy on September 30, 2022 in Kinshasa for the unification of the belts of these two federations. This is the first step of his dream to become an undisputed champion in his category by winning the belts of all four federations.
In professional boxing, an undisputed or unified champion is one who simultaneously holds the world titles of all four major federations in a given category: WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO. This is now the dream that the Congolese Junior Ilunga Makabu intends to achieve in the heavy-light category. "I want to write again the history of world boxing. My dream is to conquer the belts of all the federations in my category and I will do everything to achieve it" he told Sport News Africa.
Merhy the first step
The 34-year-old Congolese boxer will begin the long road towards the realization of his dream of unifying all the belts on September 30 in Kinshasa with a first fight against the WBA world champion, the Belgian of Lebanese-Ivorian origin, Ryad Merhy. An opponent that he takes very seriously. "Merhy is a good boxer, I expect a good fight that I will win so that the WBA belt remains in my country as the WBC belt. Before I came back here in the country, I was in my training camp, I spent at least 5 weeks there. I will go back soon to concentrate better before this fight on September 30. I didn't lose too much time after my last fight" he said.
Ryad Merhy is 29 years old and has 31 fights with 30 victories, 25 of which were by knockout. This is a little bit better than Junior Makabu who has 29 victories, 25 of which were by knockout after 31 fights.
Boxing, Junior Ilunga Makabu @junior_makabu retains in #Kinshasa his WBC world champion belt, heavyweight-legers by knocking out in the 7th round the Nigerian Olanrewaju Durodola. He remains the first Congolese boxer to reach this level, to be world champion pic.twitter.com/7djRUhLvVb
Martyrs Stadium, the Arena of dreams
Before unifying all the belts, Junior Makabu will already realize a first dream: fighting at the Martyrs Stadium. "My dream was to fight one day at the Martyrs Stadium and today I am very proud that it is about to come true. I thank the President of the Republic who accepted that this fight be organized in Kinshasa. I am proud of what I do, defending my country all over the world. Usually, I fight outside and today I have 29 victories. It is not given to anyone. But for me, winning at home is always special and it will be even more so at the Martyrs Stadium. I promise the Congolese people a great show and especially a victory over Merhy. The belt will stay here. As Mohamed Ali did here in Kinshasa in 1974 in the heavyweight division, I will unify the WBC and WBA belts before going for the other belts. We will find the mechanism to fill this big stadium" he confided.
Unification of all belts, a very closed circle
The road to the unification of the belts of the four major federations has always been long and very difficult. In fact, no boxer in the heavy-light category has ever achieved it. Only eight boxers have achieved it in all categories. The last one was the American Devin Haney in the light weight category. It was on June 5 after his victory over Australian George Kambosos. The seven others are Bernard Hopkins (middleweight), Jermain Taylor (middleweight), Terence Crawford (super lightweight), Oleksandr Usyk (middleweight), Josh Taylor (super lightweight), Saul Alvarez (super middleweight) and Jermell Charlo (super welterweight).
Junior Ilunga Makabu will have to be patient and above all determined to finally be part of this very closed circle.
Junior Ilunga Makabu, premier congolais à remporter le titre du champion du monde de la WBC lourd-léger.@fatshi13 @BillyKambale1 pic.twitter.com/PbeAB7wljC
— Educ Tv RDC (@tv_educ) February 1, 2020
