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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This past Saturday was a busy day for fighters from Russia and the Philippines and although not everything went to plan it was certainly a noteworthy day. Metro Manila, Philippines The biggest Asian card of the day took pace in Metro Manila with a staggering 13 bouts on the show. The highest profile bout on the show featured former IBF Minimumweight world champion Florante Condes (27-8-1, 13) who claimed the IBF Pan Pacific Minimumweight title thanks to a 7th round KO over Cris Alfante (10-2, 3). Condes, who has now won 2 fights following more than a year out, seems likely to to try and rebuild himself in to world title fight though it is admittedly still early in his comeback. Although Condes's win was expected the card did have some shocks. One such shock saw the hard hitting Rex Olisa (10-23-1, 8) stopping the once touted Bebong Manalo (8-2, 5) in just 3 rounds. Although Olisa has a poor record he is tough, has power and is dangerous. If fighters think they will be having an easy day with Olisa they are very much mistaken. One bout that went the way we'd have expected saw the win-some lose-some Jonathan Ligas (7-5-1, 1) manage to out point the win-some lose-lots Elbert Guardario (8-24-1, 2) via a hard fought 10 round decision. Likewise Virden Rivera (7-0-1, 2) 10 round victory over Jovill Marayan (8-16-3, 3) was also expected, especially when you consider the lack of power in Rivera's shots. In the shows only bout to be scheduled for 8 rounds we saw an accidental clash of heads call a halt to proceedings in round 6. This saw Romulo Ramayan Jr (6-3-3, 3) and Lester Abutan (5-1-2, 2) needing to settle for a draw with each other. One of the most expected results of the day saw former OPBF title challenger Dennis Tubieron (17-3-1, 8) stopping the over-matched Samuel Apuya (7-17-1, 4) at the end of 2 rounds in one of the 6 round bouts. The other 6 rounders also saw the "expected" winners coming out on top as Kenjie Monenio (6-3-3, 1) stopped Mabert Paulino (2-17, 5), Roldan Aldea (7-1-1, 3) out pointed Jomar Borbon (3-17-2, 1) and Lionel Mark Duran (12-10-2, 5) took a decision over the relatively hapless Roy Albaera (2-22-5). In the shows 4 rounder bouts we saw mixed results for debutants. We Joe Noynay (3-0) widely defeat his debuting opponent Vicencio Rubas (0-1), in an all debutant bout Mark Baribar (1-0) took a clear decision over Joshro Lindon (0-1), whilst Jun Blaso (1-0, 1) marked his debut with an early victory over Jomar Manlangit (0-2). The only of the 4 rounders with out a debutant saw Pablo Gabunia (4-2, 2) wipe out the win-less Charlie Gabriel (0-5) inside a round. Moscow, Russia If there was something that we seemed to get a lot of today it was Russian Crusierweights with an impressive array of them in action. Amongst them was the WBC Asian Boxing Council Cruiserweight champion Maxim Maslov (13-1-1, 8) who defended his belt courtesy of a clear and dominant decision over Azerbaijan's 30 year Anar Mammadov (6-2). Mammadov, fighting in his first title bout, really did look like a novice and failed to win a round on any of the cards. Another title bout involving a Russian Cruiserweight saw recent world title challenger Rakhim Chakhkiev (18-1, 14) claim the WBC Silver Cruiserweight title with a dominant victory over the over-matched, though game, Juho Haapoja (10-5-1, 13) who was stopped in the 9th round. In a third title bout Grigory Drozd (38-1, 27) quickly took out France's Jeremy Ouanna (14-9, 3) inside a round. The bout, a clear mismatch on paper, lasted just 160 seconds. As well as the Cruiserweight bouts in Moscow there was 3 other bouts. The highest profile of those saw Sergey Ekimov (9-0, 3) taking a decision over Britain's light punching Nathan King (13-22, 1) whilst another saw the unbeaten Mikhail Smirnov (6-0, 3) took a 6 round decision over the debuting Davron Mamedov (0-1). The remaining bout saw Super Bantamweight debutant Evgeny Smirnov (1-0, 1) scoring a debut victory over the more experienced Vladislav Sagalakov (2-12, 1) who was stopped in the second round. Liverpool, England Staying with Russian's they unfortunately didn't have a great time outside of Moscow. This was partly shown in Liverpool where former world title challenger Valery Brudov (41-5, 28) was stopped in the 12th round. Brudov, attempting to claim the WBO international Cruiserweight title, gave a great effort against Tony Bellew (21-2-1, 13) though was stopped by the fofmer Light Heavyweight title challenger. The bout, a good one over-all, may end up being Brudov's final as a professional given that he is now 37 and hasn't really got anywhere to go for another big pay day. Pennsylvania, USA The lack of Russian success on foreign soil was also seen in the US where Light Heavyweight Denis Grachev (13-3-1, 8) lost to the talented Isaac Chilemba (22-2-2, 9). Chilemba, himself a former opponent of Tony Bellew, was too complete for Grachev who was repeatedly tagged by straight shots from an often moving target. Grachev, to his credit, proved he was tough though his technical limitations did let him down massively here. California, USA It wasn't all bad for Russian's though with Maxim Vlasov (29-1, 14) restoring a bit of faith for Russian boxing fans due to a decision win over American journeyman Derrick Findley (20-13-1, 1). It was an expected victory but still a good one following the losses for Russian's fighting out of their homeland. KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa As well as the poor results for Russian's fighting outside of Russia things didn't much better for Filipino's fighting outside of the Philippines and in South African Jether Oliva (20-2-2, 10) came up short in an IBO Flyweight title bout. Oliva, fighting former IBF champion Moruti Mthalane (30-2, 20), put up a stirring effort but didn't quite do enough to convince enough of the judges to give him decision, though Filipino judge Danrex Tapdasan did give the fight to his countryman. Although Oliva lost he certainly didn't harm his reputation and many who saw this will want to see him in another major contest sooner rather than later. Baja California Sur, Mexico Things were worse for Filipino Silvester Lopez (21-7-2, 15) who, in Mexico, suffered his second stoppage loss inside a year. Lopez, fighting against Mexico's hard hitting Rey Vargas (19-0, 16), lasted until round 8 though was unable to repeatedly take the heavy shots of the destructive Mexican. Lopez, a former world title challenger, has now lost 3 of his last 4. We hope to bring you results from two cards in the Philippines sooner rather than later, though they are currently unavailable. (Picture, of Lopez, is courtesy of Boxrec.com) |
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