Noel Mikaeljan Suffers Sparring Cut, WBC Title Defense Versus Ryan Rozicki Postponed
The fight that was sponsored by Don King Productions to hold is no longer valid.
Noel Mikaeljan was forced to forfeit his WBC cruiserweight title against Canadian Ryan Rozicki. The two were scheduled to meet at the June 7 DKP extravaganza at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. However, Mikaeljan had to get stitches for the cut during training camp and was forced to delay the fight.
A ring confirmed that the fight will be postponed to the next day, instead of the new player that is being looked at Rozicki.
Mikaeljan (27-2, 12 knockouts, ranked number 3 in the 200 by The Ring, was due to defend his first title. The Armenian, 33, won the belt in the third round of the former champion Ilunga. Makabu last November 4 in his hometown of Miami accepted He remains the only active title list in the current promotion list.
Rozicki (20-1, 19 KOs) will enter his second title fight if DKP can reschedule the fight. The 29-year-old from Ontario, Canada has won seven in a row since his October 2021 loss to Oscar Rivas. Their highly anticipated fight marked the first fight for the WBC Bridgerweight title.
The rest of the program is expected to go ahead as planned, even with concerns about the evening's most notable game.
Adrien Broner and Blair Cobbs will collide in a welterweight fight.
Broner (35-4-1, 24 knockouts) will go 52 weeks between shots at the opening bell. His previous appearances marked his first for Don King Productions (DKP). The previous four division list featured Bill Hutchinson in ten rounds last June 9 in Miami, Florida.
DKP's previous press announcement cast doubt on whether Broner would show up. This boxer who was out in the open gave the assurance that all the plans have gone.
Cobbs (16-1-1, 10 KOs) will end a nearly two-year layoff. The Las Vegas welterweight was last seen in August 2022 with a points win over former WBO 140-pound title holder Maurice Hooker in Fort Worth, Texas. It came five months after his lone loss, a ninth-round stoppage in March 2022 to Alexis Rocha in Los Angeles.
Broner has won major titles at 130, 135, 140 and 147. However, he has not fought at that level since losing to Pacquiao in January 2019.
In the past few months we've seen Cincinnati's Broner—who now trains in South Florida—call out almost every fighter at 140 and 147. An immediate rivalry was created when Cobbs signed with DKP earlier this year.
Rather than create different intervals for the show, it was decided to instead continue with car crashes.
Also on the show, Cassius Chaney and Michael Hunter II squared off in a WBA top ten contender match. King emphasized that the fight will have the interim WBA heavyweight title at stake. The belt was phased out in 2021. A ring he has yet to confirm the authenticity of that claim that he will be resurrected in this show.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for The Ring and vice president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
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