It's fair to say that 25 years ago the world was a very different place to what it is now. The cold war is certainly over and there is no need to fear the Russian's...right? Well this past Saturday the boxing world found out that it should fear the Russian's, in a big way. In fact the Russian fighters appear like they are set to take the higher weights and make them their own in what is a worrying time for American fighters.
Quebec, Canada We'll start our results in Canada where one of the Russian fighters really stated their class, intention and ability on the planet with a tremendous and eye opening victory that showed off a ruthless killer instinct and vicious power. That man was Artur Beterbiev (6-0, 6) who put the entire Light Heavyweight division on red alert with a 1-sided destruction of former IBF world champion Tavoris Cloud (24-3, 19). Cloud was dropped 3 times in the opening round and was lucky the bell came when it did or he'd have been stopped inside a round. Sadly for Cloud his survival in round 2 was limited and he was stopped after just 38 seconds of round 2. For Beterbiev this was a coming out party to remember and will have essentially launched him into the world rankings when they are updated. Interestingly the record for fewest bouts to win a Light Heavyweight world title is 10 fights, a record that Beterbiev must have in his sights right now. Moscow, Russia Whilst the result in Canada was a great one for Russian boxing it wasn't the only notable win for a Russian fighter on Saturday, in fact it was one of a number with many other impressive wins taking place on a show that actually took place in Moscow. One of Beterbiev's fellow prospects who also scored a notable win was Sergey Lipinets (4-0, 3) who managed to see off the tough Daniel Lomeli (22-5, 11) in 7 rounds. Prior to the bout Lomeli had only been stopped once, Eduardo Escobedo more than 5 years ago, and that took 10 rounds. Lipinets may not be as explosive or as good as Beterbiev but at 25 years old Lipinets is clearly a prospect to keep a close eye on and he certainly has the potential to go a long way at Light Welterweight or Welterweight, depending on where he settles. Although Lipinets is at the start of his career there were several Russian's who at major crossroads today. One of those was Grigory Drozd (39-1, 27) who may not have been the most entertaining but really did what was needed of him to take the WBC Cruiserweight title from Poland's tough but frustrating Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (49-3-1, 35). At times Drozd looked sensational with great lateral movement, excellent hand speed and lovely combinations at other times however he looked like he was full of self doubt and worried with repeated holding and some odd backing off late in the fight when Wlodarczyk looked ready to go. It really a mixed performance that showed Drozd has got the skills but we were left wondering if he can put it together against a more determined opponent than this version of Wlodarczyk who really was poor ene by his own inconsistent standards. Whilst Drozd, finally, got his hands on a world title it was also nice to see the return to the ring for Denis Lebedev (26-2, 20) who had been out of the ring for over a year following his "loss" to a drug-assisted Guillermo Jones. Although we expected a lot of rust on Lebedev it took him less than 2 rounds to dismantle the previously unbeaten Pawel Kolodziej (33-1, 18). Lebedev might not have been quite as destructive as Beterbiev was in Canada but it was hard not to be impressed by Lebedev who successfully defended the WBA Cruiserweight title with this win. It does appear there are a lot of good fights out there for Lebedev though we're unsure which option he will be taking right now, saying that he's too fun to ignore no matter who he is up against. Metro Manila, Philippines In the Philippines Renan Trongco (16-4, 9) narrowly retained his WBC International Flyweight title with a majority decision over Japan's Hayato Yamaguchi (12-5-1, 2). We've been told that this was a razor thin fight that could have gone either way though the win for Trongco should help him retain his world ranking with the WBC. In the 3 lead support bouts we saw a trio of stoppages. The quickest of those came in 64 seconds as Joe Noynay (6-0, 1) took out the more experienced Junjie Lauza (4-12-1, 1) with a love body shot. It take too much longer for for Jeffrey Arienza (12-2-1, 7) to force a retirement of Ronald Postrano (7-21-2, 3) who quit after 3 rounds. It took just 4 rounds for the other bout to end as Rolly Sumalpong (5-0-1, 2) forced Ricky Oyan (4-22-2, 2) to retire at the end of round 4. Another bout that failed to go the distance saw Bebong Manalo (10-2, 7) take a 5th round KO against Menard Zaragosa (6-19-1, 4) in one of the two scheduled 6 rounds. The other 6 rounder did go the distance as Lady Love Sampiton (2-2, 1) took a majority decision over Carleans Rivas (3-2-3) to claim the GAB female Flyweight title. In the 4 rounders we saw 2 bouts fail to go the distance. One of those saw Jun Blazo (2-1-1, 2) take a second round stoppage against Rolando Prima (0-3) whilst Alvin Medura (2-0, 2) forced a retirement of the debuting Elvis Lagman (0-1). The bouts that did go the distance saw Cris Ganoza (4-0) take a split decision over Jiro Saonoy (1-4) whilst Anthony Villanueva (2-0, 1) clearly out pointed Joshro Lindon (0-3). Ibaragi, Japan In Japan fans in Ibaragi had the chance to catch a small profile show. The most notable fight on the show saw Tatsuya Takahashi (18-5-3, 13) defeat limited Thai Kheaw Sod Sit Krupak (9-6-1, 1)* in the second round. After the win Takahashi announced that he would be returning to the ring on December 8th to challenge Kentaro Masuda for the Japanese Bantamweight title. In the main support bouts, both scheduled for 6 rounds, fans saw Shoichi Eiraku (6-4, 5) make very light work of Hitoshi Ando (4-8-1, 3), in just 35 seconds. The second 6 rounder saw Hideki Suzuki (5-4-1) out point Corrales Kawashimo (4-5-1, 1). The card began with 5 bouts scheduled for 4 rounds. In the Lightweight division fans saw Yuichi Kitayama (1-1, 1) over-come Akira Onishi (0-2) with a 4th round stoppage, at Featherweight we saw another stoppage as Makoto Nakamura (1-0, 1) won one of 3 all-debutant match ups stopping Shohei Kamiya (0-1) in the second round. A third early stoppage came in a Bantamweight bout as Seiyu Gunji (1-0, 1) scored an excellent debut win as he took out Kazuma Sugiura (1-1, 1) in 140 seconds. The other under-card bouts saw Fumiya Naoi (1-0) take a victory over Takeshi Honda (0-1) with a very narrow split decision whilst Yuya Nemoto (2-4) out pointed Makoto Takahashi (2-6-1, 1) in a clear win. (*record taken from boxingnews.jp)
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Yesterday was an interesting day for boxing though the most interesting story of the day was less about a fight that happened but rather one that didn't. This left a shadow over the sport for us, and for many others, though there was plenty of genuinely good action that shouldn't be forgotten for the single act of stupidity by one particular fighter. Phitsanulok, Thailand The earliest action of the day was in Thailand as Channel 7 televised an interesting show. Much of the action was Muay Thai though we did have a couple of boxing contests on it both of which had genuine significance in the sport. The biggest name in action on this Thai show was WBC #1 ranked Minimumweight Wanheng Menayothin (34-0, 11) who made light work of Indonesian journeyman Domi Nenokeba (11-17-1, 7). Nenokeba appears to have established his place in boxing with 17 successive losses include 2 to Wanheng who really must be wondering if the WBC will ever give him a title show after being the #1 contender for a considerable length of time now. The other boxing bout on this card saw Muay Thai fighter-turn-boxer Palangpol CP Freshmart (3-0, 3) rack up his second good stoppage win in as many months. Palangpol put on an aggressive display as he stopped the usually durable Indonesian Heri Amol (34-17-4, 14), who famously dropped Kazuto Ioka. Palangpol apparently claimed the WBA Asian Flyweight title with this victory and should move into the PABA rankings as a result. Moscow, Russia Whilst the Thai card was the first of the day we were all more excited about the action from Moscow which had the potential be something a little bit special. We had been anticipating the rematch between WBA Cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev (25-2, 19) and Guillermo Jones (39-3-2, 31) though that was unfortunately scrapped at the final hour after Jones was forced off the card after a positive drugs test. Although the main event was cancelled the show still went ahead with the other 6 bouts from the card. Of the bouts that did happen the best, on paper, looked like the battle of unbeaten Middleweights as the big punching Arif Magomedov (11-0, 8) took on Colombia's highly touted Alex Theran (16-1, 9). We had expected this to be an excellent match up but the big punching Russian just decimated Theran who was dropped, battered, cut and beaten. Although reports in Spanish language sources suggest Theran was cut by a headclash it seems that the Colombian was on to a hiding to nothing and realised it as he quit in his corner after 3 rounds. This victory grants Magomedov the WBA Fedelatin Middleweight title and a probably WBA world ranking. Another unbeaten fighter on this card was Umar Salamov (10-0, 9) who stopped the brave but out-matched Gasan Gasanov (7-3-1, 5). Gasanov pushed the action early on but was dropped twice in round 4 before being stopped by the big punching Salamov. Stood at 6'3" and aged just 19 Salamov looks like yet another Russian to keep an eye on at 175lbs though will likely fill into an excellent Cruiserweight. At the moment the unbeaten man holds the WBO and IBO Youth titles and is already getting his links to the major organising bodies. In another title fight Andrey Knyazev (10-1, 5) successfully defended his Russian Cruiserweight title stopping the game Ruslan Semenov (5-27-1, 3) in 4 rounds. We've been lead to believe that this was a very harsh stoppage in a fight that was being fought on a very even keel. The lower part of the card saw Ilya Rolgeyzer (3-0) defeat Roman Mirzoev (2-9, 1) in a relative dull bout whilst the debuting Sergey Lipinets (1-0) thoroughly dominated Franklin Varela (21-15, 10) who did very well to survive the course. With the main event being cancelled the biggest bout on the show was a contest between well regarded Lightweight pair Andrey Klimov (17-1, 8) and Francisco Contreras (22-5, 17). Although the bout looked good on paper it turned out to be a shocking contest full of fouls, hugging, holding and very little clean action. Whilst Boxnation didn't show this contest we can't help but feel relieved. Podolsk, Russia On a second Russian card there were several smaller bouts. One of those saw Maxim Maslov (14-1-1, 8) taking a decision over the tough but limited Arturs Kulikauskis (13-19-3, 6) whilst the unbeaten Igor Ivanov 98-0-1, 2) was unexpectedly held to a draw by Ukrainian Oleg Korobko (4-1-2, 1) who is odd 2-0-1 in Russia. Yucatán, Mexico Another Russian fighter who was in action was the unbeaten Andrey Meryasev (16-0, 11) who scored the biggest win of his career by defeating Argentina's Carlos Manuel Baldomir (49-16-6, 15) in a neutral venue of Mexico. Baldomir, best known for his shock upset over Zab Judah is no longer the fighter he once was and at close to 43 years old it's no surprise he was beaten by the younger fresher man. (Picture, of Wanheng, courtesy of boxrec.com) |
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