Oleksandr Gvozdyk will head to Philadelphia for his first WBC light heavyweight title defense.
Top Rank Boxing officially announced that Gvozdyk will defend his world title against Doudou Ngumbu on March 30 in Philadelphia. The fight will headline a Top Rank on ESPN telecast live at the 2300 Arena.
Gvozdyk was primed for an eventual shot at the WBC title last year when he became the interim titleholder in March 2018 by defeating Mehdi Amar at Madison Square Garden. Gvozdyk traveled to Quebec City, Quebec in December 2018 to take on long-time WBC champion Adonis Stevenson. The 31-year-old Gvozdyk was behind on two of the three scorecards in the 11th round when he knocked out Stevenson to win his first world title.
Ngumbu is a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, now based in France, and is ranked No. 8 by the WBC at 175 pounds. Ngumbu has previously held the WBC Francophone and WBF titles and is coming off a majority decision win over Yoann Kongolo in his last fight back in May 2018. This will be Ngumbu's first world title challenge.
The co-main event of the card is a welterweight bout between Egidijus Kavaliauskas and Ray Robinson. Kavaliauskas is the No. 1 welterweight in the WBO rankings, potentially putting him next in line to face titleholder Terence Crawford, who is defending his title against Amir Khan at Madison Square Garden on April 20. Robinson will fight for the first time since February 2018 when he was stopped by Yordenis Ugas in the seventh round of their fight.
