Nigeria’s Efe Ajagba resolve to defend his World Boxing Council (WBC) Silver heavyweight title will be put to a tough test when he faces Australia’s Joe Goodall on Saturday, November 4 at the Tahoe Blue Event Center in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
This will be the first boxing event at the arena, which opened in early September.
Ajagba (18-1, 13 knockouts), who was part of the 2016 Nigerian Olympic team, is one of the fiercest fighters in the division. The six-foot-six, 240-pound knockout artist debuted professionally in July 2017 and scored six first-round knockouts in his first eight fights.
He suffered his first defeat in October 2021 against Frank Sánchez. After the loss, Ajagba had surgery on both elbows and returned in August 2022 to stop Hungarian veteran Jozsef Darmos in the second round.
The 29-year-old contender will fight for the third time in 2023, following a decision victory over Stephan Shaw in January and a disqualification victory against Zhan Kossobutskiy in August.
Goodall (10-1-1, 9 KOs), a 31-year-old Aussie, made his professional debut in 2018. He stopped five of his first six opponents before drawing against Christian Ndzie Tsoye in August 2018.
He made his debut in the United States with a first-round knockout against Matt McKinney in March 2022.
In the following fight, Goodall suffered a decision loss against his undefeated compatriot Justis Huni. He returned last September with a third-round TKO over Arsene Fosso. In his last fight, he scored his most impressive victory to date, a sixth-round knockout against Stephan Shaw in July on a Top Rank on ESPN card in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
