There’s one last fight to be held before the page on the calendar turns from May to June this Friday night. On the eve of UFC 302 in Newark, NJ’s Prudential Center, the squared circle of boxing receives the primetime spotlight on DAZN. The 1,500-seat affair known as Red Owl Boxing is the host venue of Overtime Boxing’s OTX 7 this Friday night.
Live coverage of OTX 7 begins at 8 pm ET/ 5 pm PT on the subscription-based streaming service and its associated official YouTube channel. Absent of any late postponements between now and fight night, the final version of OTX 7 features six matches inside the ring.
Last Semifinal Spot at Stake in OTX 7 Main Event Friday Night
Quarterfinal action at super-welterweight (154 lbs.) serves as the focus for both the main and co-main event of the evening in Houston this Friday. Immediately following the co-main event, the fourth and final ticket to the tournament semifinals will be punched in the headlining fight.
Undefeated Andreas Katzourakis (12-0, 10 KOs) takes on Kudratillo Abdukakhorov (20-2, 12 KOs) in the headliner, a 10-round fight at three minutes per round to close out the show and set up the semifinals. There’s a bit of a caveat with OTX events, however.
Should the scorecards produce a draw after 30 minutes of pugilism, the main event will progress through to an 11th round for the purposes of sudden victory. Your winner will be two fights away from securing an OTX promotional contract, while the loser packs it up and thinks what may have been.
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OTX 7 Main Event Fighter Comparison and Betting Odds
Heading into the OTX 7 main event on Friday night, Andreas Katzourakis stands as the taller man at 5-foot-10, compared to Kudratillo Abdukakhorov 5-foot-9 1/2 frame. The latter owns a 67 1/2-inch reach, with no such information accessible for the former at press time.
Currently, the oddsmakers have Andreas Katzourakis installed as a -425 favorite on the money line, while Kudratillo Abdukakhorov counters as a +310 underdog. If you plan on betting on this or any other fight happening this weekend, please wager responsibly.
Can Katzourakis Advance to Semis?
Andreas Katzourakis has yet to lose thus far in the ring. Earlier on this year, he scored a third-round TKO victory over Corey Caad (6-6, 2 KOs) at the end of the period after Caad’s cornermen resigned from the match. Like that fight in January, this one will take place in Houston.
Recently, Katzourakis was interviewed by Joseph Herron on Real Boxing with Ronnie Shields, where he discussed how Shields became his coach.
“So, I was training with Abel [Sanchez] for about a year, and one day, out of the blue, he just told us that he was going to retire,” Katzourakis said. “He’s about to retire. Once he retired, basically, I would start talking with my management to see our options and where we should move next. The funny thing is that Ronnie wasn’t one of the coaches that they were working with at the time, they never had a fighter with him, so he wasn’t one of the names that came up. Many names came up, many great names came up, but Ronnie wasn’t one of them.”
“Because I really like boxing and I was watching everything and I was looking for trainers, and I already knew who Ronnie was, who he was training and I really liked him as a person, I was trying to look at his interviews and everything else to try and understand him as a person,” he continued, “I asked him, I said, ‘I want to work with with Ronnie Shields'”.
The change in coach hasn’t affected his performance in the ring. Will he book the last spot in the semifinals? Tune in and find out.
Abdukakhorov Looking to Run Winning Streak to Three
In the other corner, Kudratillo Abdukakhorov has gone 2-3 in his last five fights. Currently, he’s on a two-fight winning streak heading into the OTX 7 main event.
Back in November, he stopped Maono Ally (15-8-1, 11 KOs) in Tashkent, the capital city of Abdukakhorov’s native country of Uzbekistan, in the second round. The OTX 7 main event on Friday night is Kudratillo Abdukakhorov’s first fight inside the United States in more than a full calendar year.
On Feb. 25, 2023, he dropped a unanimous decision after 10 rounds to VeShawn Owens (14-4, 12 KOs) at The Armory in Minneapolis. Since then, he’s fought in front of a home crowd.
While getting “home games” has paid off handsomely, he’ll find himself back on US soil this weekend. How will he do?
Analysis, Film Study, and Prediction
Expect some fireworks in the OTX 7 main event on Friday night. What will another classic strength vs. strength matchup yield?
Katz Can Bring The Pain
Andreas Katzourakis is known to be an aggressive fighter. His last fight against Caad was a prime example.
During the third round of a scheduled eight, he landed a tremendous left hook to wobble Caad and send him backwards against the ring ropes. From there, his mission was clear: Seek and destroy. Katzourakis didn’t take his foot off the gas pedal down the stretch, and despite landing three illegal blows (one in each round where the fight was ongoing), Caad couldn’t keep up, with his cornermen throwing in the towel at the end of round three.
If Katzourakis disrupts Kudratillo Abdukakhorov’s gameplan, he’ll be moving onto the semifinals in the OTX 7 main event.
Abdukakhorov Can Tire Out Anybody
In the other corner, the way for Abdukakhorov to stop Katzourakis on Friday is to empty out his fuel tank. During his 2019 fight vs. Luis Collazo on Top Rank Boxing on ESPN, he exhausted his opponent.
Throughout the fight, he mixed up his stances to keep Collazo honest, with Collazo slipping against the ring ropes as round one completed. At one point during the second round of the contest, he outpaced Collazo by a 15-2 clip. Abdukakhorov proved to be the crisper competitor of the two as the rounds wore on, landing a varied arsenal of shots, even with Collazo waking up in round four.
In short, this was a masterclass in how to use endurance advantageously in boxing, with Abdukakhorov taking the fight by technical decision with under a minute to go in the 10th and final round due to Collazo’s inability to proceed due to an inadvertent headbutt causing a cut above his right eye.
All it takes is Abdukakhorov working Katzourakis to the point of exhaustion.
Final Thoughts
Get your popcorn ready ahead of time. You might not be able to pop it after the OTX 7 main event begins.
Prediction: Andreas Katzourakis by Third-Round TKO.
