The reviews are mixed among Serhii Bohachuk and his team regarding the future plans for his current opponent.

Israil Madrimov is now budgeted to appear on the next two Riyadh Season shows. The Ring No. 2 rated junior middleweight will face Bohachuk on Dec. 21 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. An injury-free performance will put the Uzbek on course to then face Vergil Ortiz on Feb. 22 at the same venue.

Not at all mentioned as a contingency plan is whether Bohachuk (24-2, 23 knockouts) —No. 6 at 154 by The Ring—would land the assignment if he were to emerge victorious. It doesn’t matter, since the Los Angeles-based Ukrainian isn’t thinking about anything beyond his current piece of business.

“I’ve read some things about [Madrimov] planning a fight with Vergil Oritz on February 22,” Bohachuk told reporters during a media workout Tuesday at Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California. “I am focused only on December 21 as I have been since I started training camp.

“People can make announcements about other fights but for me one fight at a time and one victory at a time. After I am victorious on December 21, I will consider future fights in the new year.”

Bohachuk came up just short versus Ortiz (22-0, 21 KOs), The Ring’s No. 5-rated junior middleweight, in their Aug. 10 Fight of the Year contender in Las Vegas. Ortiz survived two knockdowns to earn a majority decision and claim the interim WBC 154-pound title. Bohachuk won the title in a lopsided decision over Brian Mendoza on March 30 in Las Vegas, but lost it to Ortiz in a fight that could’ve easily gone his way.

The defeat to Ortiz came one week after Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs) lost his WBA 154-pound title to Ring No. 3 pound-for-pound entrant Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) on Aug. 3 in Los Angeles.

Bohachuk and Madrimov were blessed with industry-wide praise for agreeing to face each other later this month. Their anticipated clash will take place on the Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury Ring/WBC/WBA/WBO heavyweight championship rematch. Most observers have it as a pick-‘em.

That part made it surprising that Turki Alalshikh—chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority—revealed Madrimov as Ortiz’s opponent for the loaded Feb. 22 Riyadh Season show. Caught off guard more so than most others was Bohachuk’s promoter, Tom Loeffler of 360 Promotions.

“It’s bad karma to announce another fight three weeks before facing Serhii Bohachuk,” insisted Loeffer. “He has a 90% knockout ratio and is coming off two tremendous performances this year against Vergil Ortiz, who he dropped twice and Brian Mendoza.”

Alalshikh subsequently admitted that Madrimov was inserted mainly as a placeholder, that he didn’t want to announce the show with a question mark next to Ortiz’s name.

Bohachuk is still in a position to ruin everyone’s plans. All he cares about, however, is bumping off another high quality opponent to further enhance his résumé.

“I know Madrimov very well,” stated Bohachuk. “I have watched many of his fights. I thought he beat Crawford and believe he is one of the best fighters in the division.

“I want only tough fights and big fights and fighting him is perfect for me.”