Surrey's Eric Basran lost his fight with Ukrainian challenger Danylo Lozan on Friday (June 20), ending his hopes of winning the inaugural Riyadh Season/World Boxing Council (WBC) Boxing Grand Prix, in Saudi Arabia.
In the super lightweight division of the single-elimination boxing competition, Basran was defeated by technical knockout late in the third round.
In April, Basran, 26, advanced to the Round of 16 with a six-round split decision over American Isaiah “Kyree-James” Johnson, a previously unbeaten southpaw from Philadelphia.
In four weight categories of the Grand Prix, Boxers from around the world are competing for $200,000 in prize money and Jose Sulaimán Trophy at the Grand Prix, organized to discover and showcase "the next generation of boxing superstars." Boxers can't be older than 26 years of age or have more than 10 professional fights at the time of entry. Fights are streamed live on dazn.com/wbc.
"Basran took his first loss to arguably the tournament favourite (Lozan) in a high level bout of unbeaten prospects," tweeted Sikh Press Association after Friday's fight. "Basran remains a rated prospect and one of Canada's best boxers, certain to return at a high level. Basran is among a new generation of Sikh athletes representing their community in sport, a traditional part of faith practice."
Basran's fight with Lozan can be watched on the Next Prospects channel on Youtube.
As an amateur, Basran was a four-time Canadian national champ who won the 2019 Canadian Olympic Qualifier and earned a bronze medal at the 2019 Commonwealth Games. A lifelong Surrey resident, he went to school at Frank Hurt Secondary and has been boxing since age 11.
Basran's boxing career has been chronicled by Surrey Now-Leader for a decade, since 2015.
