Whilst usually the main action of a weekend of boxing is on a Saturday night this weekend really is 50-50 with a lot of really good fights coming on Friday as well as Saturday. The first set of bouts come from Russia where there is a really mouth watering card featuring a number of world class fighters and a main event that could end up being the fight of the year. On paper the weakest bout on the Russian card is a Light Heavyweight bout between Dmitry Bivol (1-0, 1) and Konstantin Piternov (18-6, 9). This 6 rounder however is an amazing test for the unbeaten 24 year old who will be fast tracked if he can look impressive here. This is the sort of match making we love and it's a shame we don't see more of it. In a 10 round Heavyweight bout we will see former Heavyweight world title challenger Manuel Charr (27-2, 16) take on the very capable Johann Duhaupas (31-2, 20) in a really good bout to see where both men are heading. The loser here likely falls off the radar somewhat whilst the winner should be moved towards a major bout, perhaps a Europe title fight or a world title eliminator. A second 10 round is set to take place at Cruiserweight as former world title challenger Rakhim Chakhkiev (21-1, 16) takes on former WBA “interim” champion Valery Brudov (42-5, 28). This should be a straight forward win for Chakhkiev, though we suspect he needs to do more than just “win” and instead he needs to look fantastic, if he wants his team to push him towards a world title bout later in the year. Another fringe level Cruiserweight on this card is the monstrously hard hitting Dmitry Kudryashov (16-0, 16) who will be hoping to continue his run of destruction and retain the WBA International Cruiserweight title as he battles former world title challenger Francisco Palacios (23-2, 14). Palacious has never been stopped and twice ran Krzystof Wlodarczyk close, though is now 37 years old and has certainly seen better days. We see another unbeaten puncher in action at 140lbs where Eduard Troyanovsky (20-0, 17) will be taking on the once beaten Aik Shakhnazaryan (15-1, 6). Shakhnazaryan lost his unbeaten record last time out when he was upset by the unheralded Abner Lopez and for some reason his team are really throwing him to the wolves here with Troyanovsky being a devastating puncher. This could be over quickly. In the main event we will see the tough, exciting and heavy handed Denis Lebedev (26-2, 20) defending his WBA Cruiserweight title against the free swinging Youri Kayembre Kalenga (21-1, 14). This has the potential to be something very special and we'd be shocked if this was anything short of breath taking. Both guys have their limitations but both have styles that should gel to give us a engrossing war of attrition. Staying with Cruiserweights we also get a brilliant match up in Argentina where the heavy handed Victor Emilio Ramirez (21-2, 17) takes on the highly skilled, though sometimes lazy, Ola Afolabi (21-3-4, 10) for the IBF interim title. This is probably not going to quite catch fire like the other bout but it should be equally as engrossing and we'd not be shocked if this was a brilliant back-and-forth bout between two men who are eager to score a bit win. In the US there are two cards of note. The most interesting of those is on ESPN where fans get the semi-finals in this years Boxcino tournaments. In the Light Middleweight tournament we'll see the very promising Stanyslav Skorokhod (9-0, 7) battle against John Thompson (15-1, 5) in a bout that looks good on paper. We've got to back the unbeaten Ukrainian here, especially considering how good he looked in the quarter final, though it's still a very solid match up. The other semi-final at 154lbs will see the exciting Brandon Adams (16-1, 11) take on US based Armenian Vito Gasparyan (15-3-5, 8) in what looks like a much more competitive match up than the other one. We favour Adams for this semi but Gasparyan is better than his record indicates. The other tournament is at Heavyweight where we again see two interesting looking bouts. One of those will see veteran Andrey Fedosov (26-3, 21) battle against Lenroy Thomas (19-3, 9). In their quarter finals Thomas just sneaked past Jason Estrada after a tie-breaker round whilst Fedosov battered Nat Heaven in 173 seconds. It's fair to say Fedosov is the big favourite but it's a good for Thomas to make a name for himself. The other bout will see Razvan Cojanu (13-1, 7) battle against the big hitting Donovan Dennis (11-1, 9). Cojanu also needed an extra round to get through his quarter-final, narrowly out pointing Ed Fountain, whilst Dennis stopped the previously unbeaten Steve Vukosa in 4 rounds. Of these two bouts it's the Cojanu Vs Dennis bout that holds a lot more intrigue than the other semi-final. On the other card there will be prospects galore as Showtime do one of their most interesting Shobox cards in recent memory. In the most notable bouts we get Middleweight action with one of the two most notable match ups being a bout between the the hard hitting Ievgen Khytrov (9-0, 9) and fellow unbeaten Aaron Coley (9-0-1, 6). Khytrov, who famously beat Ryota Murata in the 2011 World Amateur Champions final, will be expected to destroy Coley but that says more about Khytrov than it does about Coley. If we're being totally honest Khytrov looks like the best Middleweight prospect on the planet and is going to be a nightmare for anyone but the truly elite. The other Middleweight bout will see Sergiy Derevyanchenko (4-0, 3) battle the once beaten Alan Campa (13-1-0-1, 9). Whilst we think Khytrov is the better prospect it does seem like Derevyanchenko is being moved a bit faster, at 29 years old however he's not got a year or two to waste and at his current pace he'll be fighting to titles by the end of 2016 at the very latest. On paper this looks like a test but we can't see Campa lasting 8 rounds with Derevyanchenko. Another notable prospect in action here is Frank Galarza (16-0-2, 10) who will be up against Sheldon Moore (13-2-1, 9). Galarza had a sensation 2014 with 5 wins, including an excellent KO against the then 14-0 John Thompson. Moore shouldn't be too tough for Galarza but could make for an interesting match up for the with the unbeaten power-puncher.
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We'll admit we sometimes get over-excited about things. Boxing is one of those sports that really can get exciting just because of the anticipation of an event. Unfortunately this past weekend saw our hopes and dreams fall down to earth with an almighty crash and our realisation that this is boxing and things never go as we hope they do. On Saturday morning British Heavyweight giant Tyson Fury (22-0, 16) was forced to pull out of his clash with fellow giant Alexander Ustinov (29-1, 21) following a family member falling "gravely" ill. This should have for told the weekend really because it was disappointment, after disappointment for the most part. The Fury/Ustinov fight had been one of two Heavyweight clashes that we were excited about. The other was a WBC eliminator between Bryant Jennings (19-0, 10) and Mike Perez (20-1-1, 12). Unfortunately this potentially exciting bout turned into a bit of a damp squib after an out of shape Perez blew himself out after about 6 rounds and spent half the fight holding, spoiling and generally doing all he could to prevent an exciting contest. Perez was eventually punished for breaking the rules with a deduction in round 12 that sealed the fight in favour of Jennings by split decision. One thing that was clear from this result is that neither man should be thinking about getting in the ring with Wladimir Klitschko or Bermane Stiverne, at least not for the time being. On the same card as the Jennings/Perez bout we did get some excitement as Anthony Caputo Smith (15-4, 10) took the fight to Ola Afolabi (21-3-4, 10) in an exciting but one sided bout. Smith came out with the intention of forcing Afolabi to work and that's what he did eventually busting up the face of Smith to the point of the Dr stopping the bout. In fairness there was also a good bout in the UK as Billy Joe Saunders (20-0, 11) claimed the European Middleweight title with a stoppage against Emanuele Blandamura (22-1, 5). It was a competitive fight and a good win for Saunders and following the bout it seemed to be strongly hinted that British fans would be getting a bout between Saunders and Chris Eubank Jr. The bout is likely to sell to the British public though we've not been that impressed by Eubank who scored an easy win on the under-card against a totally mismatched opponent. Whilst the disappointment of the Heavyweight bouts would usually have stuck out as the lowest part of the weekend we need to admit that we actually had something even worse in Germany. Manfred Kuechler. The German referee appeared to make 2 very poor and highly controversial calls to help protect home fighters on a card that perhaps threw German boxing back in to the dark ages. The first poor call came in a female bout between Christina Hammer (18-0, 8) and Sophie Anne Mathis (27-4, 23). Mathis appeared to knock out Hammer with a series of shots whilst Hammer was holding her arm though the referee decided the shots had been illegal and awarded Hammer the victory by DQ in a result that sent the French boxing press into a frenzy. Unfortunately for Mathis her misfortune was hidden behind another poor decision from Kuechler who awarded a TKO victory to Robert Steiglitz (47-4, 27) in his bout against Sergey Khomitsky (29-11-2, 12). Khomitsky had problems with his tape and the referee, knowing Steiglitz was struggling, seemed to take the opportunity to stop Khomitsky rather than risk Steiglitz suffering a major loss. (Image courtesy of SES) This coming Saturday is a day that has some really interesting action with some very notable bouts in both the UK and the US. One of the most notable bout which was scheduled for the weekend was to be a Heavyweight rematch between the unbeaten Tyson Fury (22-0, 16) and and Dereck Chisora (20-4, 13). Sadly Chisora has suffered an injury however Fury will fight on the card and will battle man mountain Alexander Ustinov (29-1, 21) in what looks like a genuine clash between giants. In another interesting bout on the UK card fans will get the chance to see unbeaten Middleweights colliding as Billy Joe Saunders (19-0, 10) fights Emanuele Blandamura (22-0, 5) in a European title fight. The contest is an interesting bout on paper though we tend to feel that Blandamura is up against it here considering that he's travelled from Italy, though he did win in Germany last time out. Whilst Britain's card is long, and interesting, the card of the day is in New York. The main event on this card is the WBA Middleweight "super" title fight between Gennady Golovkin and Daniel Geale. The Middleweight title fight is great though the support bouts are equally as interesting. One of the support bouts is a Heavyweight clash between unbeaten fighters as Bryant Jennings (18-0, 10) battles against Mike Perez (20-0-1, 12) in what appears to be a very good fight. Not only is this good on paper but it's also meaningful and the winner will be set for a WBC Heavyweight title fight giving a extra motivation to both men. Another of the bouts will be at Cruiserweight as former world title challenger Ola Afolabi (20-3-4, 9) takes on American Anthony Caputo Smith (15-3, 10). This bout, a 10 rounder, won't have a title or even a big opportunity on the line but will a must win for both men who will be aware that a loss could be the end of their title dreams. A third interesting card takes place in Germany where we have a very interesting male bout and a potentially thrilling female world title bout. The male bout will see former WBO Super Middleweight world champion Robert Steiglitz (46-4, 26) taking on the under-rated Sergey Khomitsky (29-10-2,12) in a bout for the WBO Inter-Continental Super Middleweight title. Steiglitz is hoping to secure another world title fight somewhere down the line whilst Khomitsky is looking to build on his big upset win over Frank Buglioni last time out. We have to favour Stieglitz on paper but Khomitsky is certainly a live under-dog. In a female bout the sensational Christina Hammer (17-0, 8) will be attempting to claim a 3rd divisional title as she takes on hard hitting French woman Anne Sophie Mathis (27-3, 23) in a battle for the vacant WBO female Light Middleweight title. Many seem to feel that a win here for Hammer could help us move towards a European female super fight between Hammer and Cecelia Braekhus, a bout that is effectively a dream fight and the female version of Manny Pacquiao Vs Floyd Mayweather. (Image courtesy of boxnation) |
InternationalWe know that not every fight involves an Asian fighter but a lot of fights do affect Asian fighter. As a result we've decided to add this new section to Asian boxing where we look at selected International bouts. Archives
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