In what promises to be a tough road ahead, Venky's Mumbai Fighters enter the second phase of the 2011-12 World Series of Boxing (WSB) with a sixth round match against Milano Thunder here on Friday.
Standing fifth in the points table in Group ‘A', Mumbai Fighters has its task cut out against the Italian team at the Mediolanum Forum in Assago.
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The five-boxer squad will have to fight its skin out to keep the Indian outfit within a chance in the play-off stage.
In bantam-weight, Jitender Kumar will fight Vitaliy Volkov, who defeated Balbir Singh when the Italian team had come to India last November.
Jitender, on the other hand, has one win (walk-over) and one loss to his name this season.
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Diwakar Prasad, who had defeated Juan Javier Carrasco Herrera of Milano Thunder, will meet Miklas Vargo in the light-weight category.
The boxer from Milano team has already lost his first match of the season against Vazgen Safaryants of Dynamo Moscow. Middle-weight will see Mandeep Jhangra taking on William McLaughlin.
This will be Jhangra's second match this season after he lost his debut match against Dynamo Moscow in Moscow.
Marko Calic will finally get into action after getting a walk-over in his previous match against LA Matadors.
In the heavyweight category, Mumbai Fighters' new recruit Mihai Muntean will take on Michal Olas. Muntean has a 3-3 WSB record while fighting for Baku Fires last season.