Jeamie TKV set to defend British heavyweight title against Richard Riakporhe in April
An intriguing all-British heavyweight collision is coming to Netflix.
Jeamie TKV will defend his British heavyweight title against Richard Riakporhe on the Netflix-streamed Tyson Fury vs. Arslanbek Makhmudov undercard on April 11 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Last month, Uncrowned broke the news that the fight was agreed and set for a March 7 BOXXER card at Royal Albert Hall in London, however plans were changed at the 11th hour after a bigger opportunity arose for the pair.
TKV (9-2, 5 KOs) won the championship with a split decision over Frazer Clarke in November in Derby. TKV lost to David Adeleye for the British title in the fight before in controversial circumstances.
In the deciding round, Adeleye and TKV were embroiled in a clinch and ordered to break by referee Ron Kearney. Kearney even pushed TKV's left hand down in an attempt to separate the boxers from each other. Just moments after, Adeleye floored TKV with a left hook to score a knockdown.
Riakporhe (19-1, 15 KOs), a former British cruiserweight champion, unsuccessfully challenged Chris Billam-Smith for the WBO cruiserweight title in June 2024. Following that loss, Riakporhe moved up to heavyweight and has won a pair of bouts since. Last time out, Riakporhe stopped the unbeaten Tommy Welch in Round 2 on the Conor Benn vs. Chris Eubank Jr. 2 undercard.
Despite being promoted by the same company, BOXXER, Riakporhe was not the first choice for TKV. TKV and Johnny Fisher were in talks to clash on the same night at the Copper Box in London on a show that would be promoted by Eddie Hearn's Matchroom. It is understood, though, that while the boxers were happy with the terms for the fight, multiple obstacles prevented it from taking place.
The most notable one was that while BOXXER agreed to let TKV fight on a Matchroom show, it was not happy to do so on a show that would have been directly competing with its own. Matchroom had later offered to stage the fight on March 21 instead, but by then BOXXER were already in conversations for the fight to land on the Fury vs. Makhmudov card.
