Yan Zak to Face Abdul Ubaya

Cruiserweight Yan Zak faces Abdul Ubaya on Saturday at the Round 10 Boxing Club in  Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Zak was originally scheduled to face Dickson Mwakisopile. Zak's team was initially told Mwakisopile had died in a motorcycle accident, but it turned out he had simply suffered a standard cut over his left eye. Ubaya, who comes in on about two weeks' notice, is a tougher opponent than Mwakisopile.

A 25 year old, Zak is 4-0 with 3 KOs. He has been roughing up experienced journeyman thus far in his career. Ubaya is a 29 year old from Kibaha, Tanzania. Kibaha is just outside Dar es Salaam where many of Ubaya's fights have taken place. The upset-minded Ubaya has also won in Thailand and Russia, and lost by split decision in England.

Ubaya's best punch is a chopping right. He has a decent jab and a solid left hook. He's most effective throwing combinations off the jab, but he can be wild and is susceptible to counter rights and crisp jabs. Oluwatosin Kejawa snapped back Ubaya's head numerous times with his quality jab in their 2023 fight. Ubaya also uses tricky upper body movement and throws punches from odd angles to great effect.

BoxRec lists Ubaya as 10-4 with 6 KOs, but he is more experienced than that. Fights in 2020 against Richard Mazule, Michael Kalyalya, Zuber Karemba have not been included on his BoxRec ledger.

Ubaya took a disputed decision loss to Pius Mpenda in 2021. Mpenda has since been a challenging opponent for some very good fighters. Ubaya traveled to Thailand in 2023 and upset Davrobek Kurbonov, who faded down the stretch. For that win, Ubaya was awarded the WBC Asian title because it's apparently outside the World Boxing Council's purview to know that Tanzania isn't in Asia. After the split decision loss to Kejawa in England, Ubaya dominated Ibragim Estemirov in Russia last year. He then was stopped by Pawel Sosulin.

This year, Abdul beat up an out-of-shape Godfrey Paulo Kamala and had more wrinkles in his game than Stephen Nyamhanga. He will be a tough opponent for Zak. Ubaya's biggest drawback is his size. He has fought as heavy as light heavyweight, but it's a big jump up to cruiserweight. Zak needs to be careful, but his size, speed, and boxing ability should allow him to take the fight.

Zak-Ubaya is scheduled for eight rounds.