An official of World Boxing Association flyweight champion Artem Dalakian of Ukraine said on Jan. 15 during his public workout at Tokyo’s Teiken Boxing Gym that the fight with top-ranked challenger ’Yuri’’ Akui of Kurashiki Moriyasu Boxing Gym on Jan. 23 at EDION Arena Osaka may go the distance considering Akui’s true strength.

  Dimitry Eliseev, a sub-promoter and a former top amateur boxer, said, ‘’We have analyzed him for the past six months as the fight was put off and now assume the possibility of the upcoming fight going the distance.’’

  The fight was postponed and rescheduled from the originally expected last Nov. 15 due to WBA bantamweight champion Takuma Inoue of Ohashi Boxing Gym suffering rib injury during training last October as the Dalakian-Akui fight was to serve as the chief supporting card for Inoue’s title defense.

  The 36-year-old Dalakian, who arrived in Japan two days ago, practiced lightly at the gym as he said he has been overcoming jet lag. Dalakian and his entourage came all the way from the war-damaged Ukraine via Poland’s capital Warsaw. Dalakian said, ‘’Everything has been going as we have planned. The weather in Japan is fine.’’

  ‘’Though Ukraine has been in the midst of war (ever since Russia’s invasion in February 2022), we are lucky enough to be able to engage ourselves in training,’’ Dalakian said, adding he had a training camp for nearly three months in Kyiv before leaving for Japan.

  Asked about Akui, Dalakian simply said, ‘’He is a very good boxer and is entitled to be a challenger. Since Jan. 23 is my mother’s birthday, I have to give her the championship belt as a birthday present.’’

  Dalakian started boxing at the age of 13 and had 220 bouts as an amateur boxer, only losing 13 bouts.

  Dalakian captured the then vacant WBA title in February 2018 by decisioning Brian Viloria of the United States and has so far successfully defended the title six times. He is undefeated in his 22 bouts, including 15 knockouts. The 28-year-old Akui has a record of 18 wins, 11 by KO, against two losses and a draw.

  The scheduled 12-rounder will be part of the event popularly dubbed ‘’Prime Video Presents Live Boxing 6.’’