(Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)
Shakhram Giyasov will replace the heartache of mourning his daughter with a determination to honour her memory when on Saturday evening he fights Jack Catterall.
On the undercard of Oleksandr Usyk-Rico Verhoeven they contest the WBA “regular” welterweight title, in what amounts to Giyasov’s first fight since April 2025, when weeks after enduring his two-year-old daughter’s tragic death from a rare brain condition he so admirably stopped Franco Ocampo in four rounds.
The 32-year-old risked his undefeated record that night to earn the status of mandatory challenger to the WBA title Jaron Ennis and Eimantas Stanionis were contesting later that evening, and almost inevitably he became emotional when he spoke, post-fight, but 13 months on he confronts his highest-profile opponent on the highest-profile promotion he has been involved in, and is aware of the extent to which victory can change his and his surviving family’s lives.
Giyasov, of Uzbekistan, can expect winning the lightly regarded “regular” title to lead to a fight for the full title held by Rolando Romero and therefore his biggest purses to date.
He regardless also sees in Romero’s status as champion an injustice given it was he, and not Romero, who previously earned the status of mandatory challenger to the by-then-vacant title Romero has since challenged for and won, but not unlike Catterall – also 32 years old, and of England – Giyasov has consistently had to fight to advance his career and it is partly for that reason that there exists between them a mutual respect.
“I was on a run when I found out what happened and they called me and told me what happened – my daughter had passed,” he told BoxingScene. “For the first three hours I couldn’t really talk; I couldn’t figure out what’s going on; what should I do. I thought that it was all over and that I was just going to pack my stuff and go back home. Then I talked to my father and my father told me ‘The achievement of your lifetime is so close – you have to move forward, you have to do this for your daughter, you have to do all of this in her memory’, and that’s what motivated me, that’s what pushed me through. For her – I had to push forward, I couldn’t give up. It was very tough; it was very difficult times. I never get past it – it’s always with me. But the goal remains the same – to become a champion, and to achieve what all my family…
2026-05-21 13:00:00
