Souleymane Cissokho vs. Egidijus Kavaliauskas - May 10, 2025

[Ruthless-RKO]

Souleymane Cissokho vs Egidijus Kavaliauskas eliminator set for December 7th

Souleymane Cissokho has held the WBC “silver” title since 2022

Olympic veterans Souleymane Cissokho and Egidijus “Mean Machine” Kavaliauskas will meet in a December 7th WBC welterweight final eliminator in Equatorial Guinea.

Cissokho (17-0, 9 KO) took home bronze in Rio, sweeping his first three opponents before running afoul of eventual winner Daniyar Yeleussinov in the semis. You could charitably call his seven-year pro career “patient;” he picked up a number of decent-to-pretty-good wins over the likes of Vladimir Hernandez and Kieron Conway on the way up, but has shown little urgency to cash in the WBC “silver” belt since edging out Tulani Mbenge for it in 2022. His lone fight of the last 22 months saw him beat Isaias Lucero by decision last November.

This marks the Senegal-born, France-based Cissokho’s first pro appearance in Africa.

Kavaliauskas (24-2-1, 19 KO), who competed at both Beijing and London, is best known for a three-fight stretch that saw him fall to Terence Crawford and Vergil ORtiz Jr with a finish of Mikael Zewski in the middle. He’s been quiet in the three years since, cruising past Mykal Fox in 2022 before stopping journeyman Jose Marruffo 14 months later.

Honestly, I’m here for it. Two good-but-not-great challengers duking it out for the right to challenge a good-but-not-great champion. We’ll let you know if this gets a stateside broadcast.

[robbydecker]

I Wonder if the winner will be the next opponent for Boots...?

[keithmoonhangover]

I really like Cissokho, hope he gets his shot.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Richard Riakporhe, from London, England, is set to return on December 7 against fellow Briton David Jamieson in the unexpected setting of Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Boxium Promotions have announced.

The bout will be on the undercard of the WBC welterweight eliminator between Souleymane Cissokho and Egidus Kavaliauskas.

[skanksta]

Richard Riakporhe, from London, England, is set to return on December 7 against fellow Briton David Jamieson in the unexpected setting of Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Boxium Promotions have announced.

The bout will be on the undercard of the WBC welterweight eliminator between Souleymane Cissokho and Egidus Kavaliauskas.

Equatorial Guinea !?

[aumonier]

French press announces today that the fight between Cissokho and Kavaliauskas has been postponed because Cissokho hurt his hand yesterday during a sparring with Amin Benchia.

https://www.lequipe.fr/Boxe/Actualites/ ... ee/1523327

[Ruthless-RKO]

French press announces today that the fight between Cissokho and Kavaliauskas has been postponed because Cissokho hurt his hand yesterday during a sparring with Amin Benchia.

https://www.lequipe.fr/Boxe/Actualites/ ... ee/1523327

Any news on Richard Riakporhe's fight?

[aumonier]

According to this article, the whole event is postponed but is still supposed to be organized later in Equatorial Guinea

https://www.lefigaro.fr/sports/boxe/box ... c-20241128

[Ruthless-RKO]

Souleymane Cissokho-Egis Kavaliauskas elimination bout could take place May 3

The welterweight title elimination bout between Souleymane Cissokho and Egis Kavaliauskas, which was originally supposed to take place in late 2024, may have a new date this spring.

Cissokho-Kavaliauskas is scheduled for May 3 in Equatorial Guinea, the WBC said in a division-by-division update about all of its titleholders.

The fight was initially scheduled for December 7 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea’s capital. However, the event was canceled in late November when Cissokho suffered a broken hand in sparring.

Boxium Promotions has not yet announced the new date.

Cissokho was previously ranked No. 1 by the WBC at welterweight but was pushed down to No. 2 in the sanctioning body’s most recent ratings update, supplanted by Devin Haney. Kavaliauskas is in the No. 5 slot.

Supposedly the winner of Cissokho-Kavaliauskas would replace Haney or whomever else is in the top spot.

Cissokho, 17-0 (9 KOs), is a 33-year-old born in Senegal and living in France. He has not fought since November 2023, when he won a unanimous decision over the 16-1 Isaias Lucero.

Kavaliauskas, 24-2-1 (19 KOs), was born in Lithuania and now lives in California. He also hasn’t fought since 2023, when he took out the 14-12-2 Jose Marruffo in three rounds. The 36-year-old’s record includes a TKO6 win over David Avanesyan in 2018, a draw with Ray Robinson in 2019, a ninth-round TKO loss to Terence Crawford in a welterweight title fight in 2019, and an eighth-round TKO loss to Vergil Ortiz Jnr in 2021.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Let's hope this goes through

[Ruthless-RKO]

Did this happen?

[aumonier]

It has been reschduled for next week-end, may 10. It is on announced by french TV broadcast so ot seems it will be happening for real this saturday

[Ruthless-RKO]

It has been reschduled for next week-end, may 10. It is on announced by french TV broadcast so ot seems it will be happening for real this saturday

Thanks

[aumonier]

Undercard announced with a couple decent fights.

https://www.karatebushido.com/article/k ... e-mondiale

Kevin Lele Sadjo (unbeaten, 24-0, considered for an IBF eliminator with Mbilli but it wasn't done) will fight Habib Ahmed (experimented, 30-3-1, once world title challenger against Gilberto Ramirez, and has lost after that only to Sebastian Fundora and Ali Izmailov).



Nico Ali Walsh (10-2, grandson of Muhammad Ali) will fight an unbeaten fighter from Ghana, Ebenezer Sowah (7-0-1).


Also announced in here on boxrec, a fight between Amari Jones (13-0) and Kyle Lomotey (12-3)

[Ruthless-RKO]

Egidijus Kavaliauskas-Souleymane Cissokho card no longer streaming on ESPN+

Fans in America hoping to see this weekend’s fights featuring Egidijus Kavaliauskas and Kevin Lele Sadjo in separate bouts won’t be able to watch them live.

Top Rank announced Wednesday that they will no longer be streaming the fights this Saturday from Equatorial Guinea on ESPN+, citing “unforeseen technical issues.”

The card will proceed as planned, a Top Rank source confirmed to BS.

BS has also reached out to French promoter Yohan Zaoui, who promotes Sadjo, to confirm that the fights will still be aired on the sports channel Canal+ in France as advertised, but have yet to hear back.

The card is by far the most significant boxing event to take place in the Central African nation, which is just south of Cameroon, the home country of Sadjo, the 24-0 (21 KOs), super middleweight contender who will face Ghana's Habib Ahmed, 30-3-1 (21 KOs), in one of the bouts on the card.

The card, which has four fights advertised on Boxrec, will also feature former welterweight titleholder "Mean Machine" Kavaliauskas against France-based welterweight Souleymane Cissokho, plus Nico Ali Walsh meeting unbeaten Ghanaian Ebenezer Sowah and Amari Jones of Las Vegas against England's Kyle Lomotey.

The show will take place at Centre de Conference de Sipopo in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, and will be the first pro boxing event in that country since 2018, and just the seventh ever, according to Boxrec.

[aumonier]

First fight, Ali Walsh wins against Sowah on Majority Decision (58-56, 57-57, 59-55). Had it 58-56 too, nice fight.

[aumonier]

Second fight, unanimous decision for Amari Jones against Kyle Lomotey (80-71, 80-71, 78-73). Jones was better but wasn't very impressing, I hope he can do better because it was a bit boring, no real tactics, a bit of low blows that the referee didn't see, nothing interesting in this fight.

[aumonier]

Easy win for Lele Sadjo against Ahmed. KO in round 3 from body punch, after Ahmed was down in round 2 from a previous body punch.

[aumonier]

Cissokho wins by Unanimous Decision (114-112, 115-111, 116-110). A close fight, with Cissokho using his mobility to annihilate the punching power of Kavaliauskas. He didn't do that well at first (he was down in round 2 and 5, when he got hit, and almost fell out of the ring the second time). The scorecards are generous because it looks as if he won every rounds except the one where he was down, while there were many close rounds, with Cissokho not getting hit but not hitting Kavaliauskas very often either. I had a 113-113 but in the end it is clear Kavaliauskas was frustrated because he could never hit Cissokho in the second part of the fight.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Thanks for the updates

[squiggy]

This fight doesn't appear at all on either guy's record on here

[margaret thatcher]

ciss is slick but brittle

[aumonier]

This fight doesn't appear at all on either guy's record on here

Yes, it is curious because it did happen (saw it live - I mean live on TV , it was on french Channel Canal+ 360) and it was announced as a WBC final eliminator, the winner supposed to fight against Mario Barrios (if he wins against Pacquiao), so not something that should disappear due to not being officially sanctionned.

It was present on the site for a while (and still waiting for the result to be added a dozen hours ago).
https://www.BS.com/articles/so ... eliminator


I think there was already a previous fight of Nico Ali Walsh against Noel Lafargue that happened in Guinea that was not added in his record, there may be some difficulties with fight that take place in Africa.
https://www.BS.com/articles/ni ... l-lafargue

The links are fine but, probably some rule of the forum, the boxing scene name is altered

[aumonier]

What can be noticed is that there is another reunion for TV Channel Canal+ soon (with main event Tony Yoka vs Arslan Yallyev) and that reunion has stil haven't been added to boxrec. Is there troubles with fights scheduled in France or by french promoters (Cissokho was one of the promoter of his own fight) ? It can also be connected with the fact the fight between Lele Sadjo and Mbilli that was ordered by WBC has been dropped due to conflicts and doubts between Mbilli and the french promoter that won the purse bid.

[aumonier]

https://www.lequipe.fr/Boxe/Actualites/ ... bf/1561948

This event in Malabo seems more and more dubious. Not only it has been removed from boxrec, not added in each boxer's palmares, bur now it seems that Lele Sadjo was not suppoqed to do the fight he did against Habib Ahmed. According to this french article, since he did the fight against Ahmed, he has lost his spot for an IBF eliminator against Osleys Iglesias. Zaoui, who is the promoter of Lele Sadjo, seems to disapprove Lele Sadjo's choice and had advised him not to fight Ahmed.

Now, not only did the fights of this event are not officially included in the boxers palmares (they are included on other sites like Tapology), but they are considered as obstructions in the boxers careers. For Nico Ali Walsh, there is now two fights in his pro career that are registered in some places (Tapology) and not registered in others (here on boxrec), the fight against Lafargue and the fight against Sowah. Not easy to follow.

Concerning the IBF eliminator, tye name of Surace is now considered as nect opponent of Iglesias, even though it is said in article that Surace is already in talks for a big fight.