Ola Afolabi's Pole axed
London's Ola Afolabi, WBO Intercontinental cruiserweight champion, is scheduled to make his second title defence as the co-feature of the Vitali Klitschko vs Tomasz Adamek show September 10 in Wroclaw, Poland.
Afolabi, 17-2 and rated #2 in the WBO, #3 WBA, #7 WBC and #7 in the IBF was scheduled to fight undefeated cruiserweight star Pawel Kolodziej (28-0) but the Pole is out with his promoter claiming he has been unable to train after being involved in a car accident.
"Everybody was excited about this fight," stated Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions, promotional company of Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko. "We signed Ola one year ago and he is now a completely different fighter since he has started working with Vitali's trainer, Fritz Sdunek."
K2 has featured Ola on their last three shows and he has responded with great results. Afolabi, born in London but based in Los Angeles has a growing fan base in the UK after impressive KO wins over two fellow Brits, Enzo Maccarinelli and Terry Dunstan.
Andrew Wasilewski of 12 Round Knockout Promotions, Promoter of Kolodziej, was very dejected when he found out the news. "We regret very much that Pawel will not be able to fight Ola Afolabi September 10 in Wroclaw. This will be the biggest boxing event in Polish history and Pawel wanted to be a part of it.
"He was involved in a car accident, he is ok, but the doctor said that he could not train properly for the fight because of the injuries that he suffered."
Wasilewski's company also promotes WBC cruiserweight champion, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk. K2 is currently looking for a replacement opponent and offered the fight to Mateusz Masternak, 23-0, who is also an undefeated Polish cruiserweight and is scheduled to fight on the same show.
"I thought this was the perfect solution," said Loeffler, "but Masternak's people turned down the fight because of short notice, even though he has been training to fight on the same show. Ola is like Vitali and at a point in his career where he will fight anyone, even accepting two undefeated Polish fighters in their home country."
The bill will be held in the brand new 42,000 seat soccer stadium in Wroclaw, Poland. The show will be broadcast in over 110 countries and on pay per view in Poland starting at 9pm. The Klitschko vs Adamek main event will be shown live on HBO in the US at 5pm EST and also live in Germany on RTL at 11pm.
