While awaiting an opportunity to fight for a world title belt, Kanat Islam continues to stay active in the ring.

The junior middleweight contender will face Norberto Gonzalez in a 12-round bout tonight at the Boca Raton Hotel and Club in Boca Raton, Florida.

Islam (23-0, 19 knockouts) knocked out Robson Assis in the opening round of his most recent fight on Feb. 17 in Wilmington, Delaware. In his previous fight on Oct. 29, Islam won a hard-fought 12-round unanimous decision over fringe contender Patrick Allotey.

The 32-year-old Islam, who is of Kazakh descent and resides in Pahokee, Florida, is ranked in the Top 10 in three of the major sanctioning bodes. Islam is ranked as high as No. 4 by the WBA.

Gonzalez (23-8, 13 KOs) has won three of his last four bouts after losing four in a row. His most recent wins were split decision victories over former world title contender Javier Maciel and prospect Daniel Cruz.

Welterweight contender Zhankhozh Turarov will square off against Gustavo Garibay in an eight-round bout.

In his most recent bout on Oct. 29, Turarov (20-0, 14 KOs) stopped Isaac Aayee in four rounds. The Kazakh-born fighter has stopped 13 of his last 14 opponents.

Turarov is ranked No. 10 by the WBA and No. 12 by the IBF.

Garibay (13-8-2, 5 KOs), who resides in the Mexico City area, lost an eight-round decision to Sebastien Bouchard on Feb. 24, snapping a seven-bout unbeaten streak.

Heavyweight Zhilei Zhang (15-0, 11 KOs) of China faces Curtis Harper (12-4, 8 KOs) in an eight-round bout.

Unbeaten bantamweight Dagoberto Aguero (11-0, 8 KOs) will face veteran Gustavo Molina (24-14, 9 KOs) in an eight-round featherweight bout. Aguero tipped the scale at 118 pounds at Thursday’s weigh-in, while Molina weighed 123.8 pounds.

Three more bouts will round out the Nelsons Promotions card.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper, BoxingScene.com and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing.

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