Jirov comes back to ring

WORLEY, Idaho – After a nine-month layoff, former Olympic champion Vassiliy Jirov returns both to action and to the cruiserweight division when he faces Spokane’s Luke Munson in a 10-round main event tonight at the Coeur d’Alene Casino’s House of Fury.

Born in Balgash, Kazakhstan, Jirov has a 35-3-1 career record with 30 victories coming by way of a knockout.

Jirov, 32, won the light heavyweight gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and began his professional boxing career as a cruiserweight (175 to 200 pounds), knocking out Worley regular “King” Arthur Williams to win the IBF crown on June 6, 1999.

A 14-month layoff prior to a 2003 title fight with James Toney proved costly, with Jirov losing a 12-round unanimous decision.

A vicious body puncher, Jirov attempted to move up to fight as a heavyweight in 2004, but lost back-to-back bouts to Joe Mesi and Michael Moorer – the first on a 10-round unanimous decision, the latter on a seventh-round technical knockout.

Jirov has fought as heavy as 227 pounds. In his last fight, on July 21, he weighed in at 223 1/2 pounds for a majority draw with Orlin Norris (57-10-1, 31 knockouts)

Jirov last fought as a cruiserweight against Joseph Kiwanuka in November 2003.

All but five of Munson’s 22 professional fights have been at the Coeur d’Alene Casino. The Mead native (18-4, 13 knockouts) scored a first-round knockout over Eric Swensen in January, his first fight since losing by TKO to Tim Shocks in February 2005 at Ocean Shores.

The sold-out main event will be a major step up in competition for Munson. In his only previous meeting with a ranked opponent, he went toe-to-toe with Williams for seven rounds before losing on a TKO in the eighth in August 2004.

Also on the card is a rematch of local welterweights. Coeur d’Alene’s Danny Brownson (4-1) scored the only knockout of his professional career against Sandpoint’s Favio Medina in his second fight. Brownson has not fought since scoring a four-round decision over Paul Mpendo in January 2004.

Medina, 9-1-2 with five knockouts, scored a third-round TKO in January.

Billy Drywater of Nespelem, Wash., who has knocked out opponents in his first two professional fights, was scheduled to face Boise’s Chris Lords. Instead, he will face Moses Matovu (2-11-3, 0 knockouts), a cruiserweight from Las Vegas. Matovu is trained by former world champion Cornelius Boza Edwards.

Newman Lake heavyweight Skylar Anderson (2-1, 2 knockouts) takes on Daniel McGarry (3-5-1, two knockouts) from Rio Linda, Calif.