WBA orders Murodjon Akhmadaliev vs Kevin Gonzalez final eliminator after Tomoki Kameda declines

Kevin Gonzalez is undefeated and ranked third by the WBA

While we wait for Naoya Inoue and Marlon Tapales to finalize their undisputed super bantamweight title fight, a bit of news from the rest of the division.

A couple months back, the WBA ordered recently deposed unified champ Murodjon Akhmadaliev to fight Tomoki Kameda in a final eliminator. Yesterday, however, the sanctioning body revealed that Kameda will instead continue his career at 126, leaving Akhmadaliev to fight no. 3 Kevin Gonzalez.

Not sure why it took Kameda from the start of June to the end of August to make that decision, but I am not privy to his thoughts. I will say that I don’t see his style translating that well to a higher weight class considering his lack of power.

Gonzalez (26-0-1, 13 KO) has a couple of decent wins in his native Mexico, but nobody that would ever sniff the rankings. On paper, he’s mincemeat for Akhmadaliev (11-1, 8 KO). While the comeback there is that Akhmadaliev should have also mulched Tapales, at least “The Nightmare” was a former champ with lots of high-level experience.