Daniel Roman out against Akhmadaliev with injury

The co-headline match of the upcoming Devin Haney-Zaur Abdullaev contest was taking off the board as Daniel Roman had to withdraw due to a shoulder injury.

Steve Kim of ESPN broke the news late Monday night, as the IBF and WBA junior featherweight champ was slated to take on against Murodjon Akhmadaliev. This match was to have taken place on Sept. 13th at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

“He’s got a left should injury, we don’t know the full extent, but we should know by tomorrow. We already did MRI’s last week,” Alex Camponovo, the General Manager of Thompson Boxing, confirmed to ESPN on Monday.

Multiple sources have informed me that Danny Roman has pulled out of his Sept 13th bout because of an injured left shoulder. No word yet on how long he will be out #boxing

— Steve Kim (@StevESPNKim) September 3, 2019

Per Kim’s report, Roman’s trainer and manager, Eddie Gonzalez, the shoulder were damaged while sparring on August 19th. “He felt a lot of pain,” said Gonzalez to ESPN. Gonzalez also mentioned that Roman was given some time off from the gym and had acupuncture sessions but that the pain flared up again a few days later.

“We’ll get a definite answer on Tuesday from the surgeon to know if he’s going to have surgery or not. They’re saying it’s a partial tear,” said Gonzalez to ESPN, who mentioned that his fighter will be seeing doctor Richard Rogachefsky.

“He has no strength in his shoulder,” remarked Gonzalez. “He can’t exercise, he can’t spar, he can’t fight, bottom line.”

This injury is terrible news as Roman (27-2-1, 10 KOs) is fresh off a highly entertaining unification bout where he defeated TJ Doheny over twelve rounds that is on a lot of people’s list of Fights of the Year in April. Roman initially won the IBF belt back from Shun Kubo in September of 2017.

Akhmadaliev (6-0, 5 KOs) was the WBA mandatory challenger and was shaping up to be another tough matchup for Roman. Akhmadaliev is a highly decorated amateur and a 2016 Olympic Bronze medalist. He also was last in action on the same card as Roman in April stopping Carlos Carlson.

We’ll see if they keep Akhmadaliev in action on the card upcoming that will air on the streaming service DAZN, but this title defense is currently on hold.