The June 10 showdown between Johnny "The Hurricane" Muller and Thabiso "The Rock" Mchunu for the vacant ABU cruiserweight belt is generating a lot of buzz among boxing fans.

Their 12-round bout will be staged by Golden Gloves at Emperors Palace. The two boxers are on a comeback trail, following their losses, and that on its own is an appropriate recipe for a humdinger of a fight.

But it is the timing by promoter Rodney Berman to put this fight together now which makes it so attractive.

Mchunu was stopped in round nine by Ukrainian former Olympian Oleksandr Usyk for the WBO belt in December, while Muller bombed out of Berman's Super Four series after being outpointed by Micki Nielsen from Denmark in the semifinal in June.

The left-handed Mchunu had a steady rise, mowing down several favoured opponents. His tour-de-force performance against former top heavyweight contender Eddy Chambers in the USA in 2013 proved without a doubt that Mchunu was among the best in the world.

Mchunu, from Pietermaritzburg, is trained in Johannesburg by Sean Smith.

In his follow-up to Chambers the following year, Mchunu won the North American Boxing Federation belt in the USA but he came short against Ilunga Makabu in their WBC elimination bout in 2015.

On the other hand, Muller also had a steady rise - winning the SA titles and some regional belts in the light heavyweight division, before finally meeting Usyk for the WBO Inter-Continental belt in Ukraine.

Muller, from Roodepoort, also lost to Kevin Lerena and Nielsen in April and June last year, respectively.

Muller, who is trained in Boksburg by Harold Volbrecht, came back in December and knocked out Herman Potgieter in two rounds. The right-handed Muller has in total knocked out 14 of his 20 victims.