Icelandic heavyweight Kolbeinn Kristinsson was supposed to have his first step-up in competition this Saturday, but a fever knocked out Finnish heavyweight Mika Mielonen before the weigh-in.

Luckily for Kristinsson, who had already flown in to Finland and didn’t want to waste the trip, a replacement opponent was found just four hours before the weigh-in. Pavlo Krolenko (3-15-1, 2 KOs), a 36-year-old from Ukraine, stepped in to take the assignment, but without much time to prepare he could only offer so much resistance against Kristinsson (15-0, 9 KOs) before surrendering after round five of the eight-round bout.

“It was an unfortunate situation that the original opponent fell ill, but the guy who stepped in on short notice was really good, and a good spoiler. Had to slow grind the fight and got the stoppage win in round 5,” said the 36-year-old Kristinsson, who is the only active male pro boxer in Iceland, where professional boxing remains banned.

Kristinsson was fighting for the first time since last September, having sustained two separate breaks to his right hand in November and February. With his hand now healed, Kristinsson is hoping that the next time is the charm for his step-up fight.

“There are some talks about fighting in the U.S. and there are some offers from other places in Europe, Finland included,” said Kristinsson, who weighed a career-high 259.5 pounds for this fight.

“We will have to go over the options in the next coming weeks.”

U.S. based promoter Dmitriy Salita of Salita Promotions says that he hopes a fight can be made next that will establish the 6’6” heavyweight as a contender in the division, at a time when the division is as lucrative as it has been in a generation.

“He will be in the mix to put himself in contender status. That’s a fight we are working on,” said Salita.