Saturday: Jorge Linares-Zaur Abdullaev & Amir Khan-Kell Brook Headline Fight Marathon on ESPN+
international fight marathon this Saturday, Feb. 19, live and exclusively
on ESPN+. It begins with Breakfast and Boxing from RCC Boxing Academy in
Yekaterinburg, Russia, as *Zaur Abdullaev *defends his WBC Silver
lightweight belt in a 12-rounder against three-weight world champion *Jorge
Linares*.Linares-Abdullaev fight action begins at 9:30 a.m. ET/6:30 a.m. PT, which
precedes the highly anticipated grudge match between former world
champions *Amir
Khan* and *Kell Brook. *Coverage of Khan-Brook from AO Arena in Manchester,
England, starts at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT and includes the vacant WBO female
junior middleweight world title bout between *Natasha Jonas *(10-2-1, 7
KOs) and *Chris Namus *(25-6, 8 KOs), English super middleweight
champion *Charlie
Schofield* (17-1, 1 KO) defending his belt in 10-rounder versus *Germaine
Brown* (11-0, 3 KOs), and the heavyweight professional debut of British
Olympic bronze medalist *Frazer Clarke*.
Linares (47-6, 29 KOs) has been a professional for nearly 20 years, winning
world titles at featherweight, junior lightweight and lightweight. During
his lightweight run, he’s defeated the likes of Anthony Crolla and Kevin
Mitchell while giving pound-for-pound great Vasiliy Lomachenko a stern test
before being knocked out in the 10th round of their May 2018 matchup.
Linares is coming off last May’s competitive decision defeat to rising star
Devin Haney. Abdullaev (14-1, 8 KOs), who has won three fights since a TKO
loss to Haney, earned the WBC Silver title last September with a unanimous
decision over former world champion Dejan Zlaticanin.
ESPN+-streamed undercard action from Russia includes a 12-round WBA
130-pound title eliminator between *Mark Uranov* (20-2-1, 10 KOs) and *Angel
Rodriguez* (19-1, 10 KOs), and Russian junior welterweight standout *Ivan
Kozlovsky* (4-0, 2 KOs) in a 10-round test against *Zoravor Petrosian*
(12-1, 5 KOs).
