Rising cruiserweight prospect Alexey Egorov went the distance for the second time of his career, but it was worth it, as he added a very sound name to his resume - and that is Thomas Oosthuizen of South Africa - the biggest on of his young, eight-fight pro career.
Egorov started aggressively (as always), while The Tommy Gun was mainly concentrating on defense. Utilizing rope-a-dope tactics, the South African was standing at the ropes, moving his upper body and sliding Egorov's hard shots. The Russian paid special attention to Oosthuizen's mid-section, troubling him with body shots from various angles, while headhunting proved to be less fruitful. In round two, his success rate got better and Thomas ate more leather.
The first part of the fight was mostly is Egorov's favour, as he poured with power shots, only slightly decreasing his punch output and intensity. Oosthuizen tried to spear Egorov with an uppercut but wasn't exceptionally successful in doing so. More damage was done by Egorov, who has reddened South African's face.
After the mid-point, the fight got hotter, as Oosthuizen tried to become more offensive and sat more on his punches. Egorov visibly struggled to maintain the same tempo but was biting very hard nevertheless. His actions brought success in rounds seven and eight, as the South African was cut over his forehead and had problems breathing, as his nose was busted. Egorov continued to deliver on sheer will, and Oosthuizen's punches were too week to be felt by the Russian. Both boxers delivered it during the last stanza.
Final scores were: 100-90, 99-91, and 98-92 - for WBA #7 rated Egorov, who acquired a vacant IBF International title and improved his record to 8-0, 6 KOs. Oosthuizen is now 28-3-2, 16 KOs. It was a great learning experience for the Russian fighter, who at 27 is three years and 25 fights younger than the South African.
WBA #8 super featherweight Akzhol Sulaymanbek Uulu (14-0, 7 KOs) delivered one of his best performances in tearing Pipat Chaiporn (also known as Mike Tawatchai) of Thailand apart and defending his WBA Asian 130lb title for the third time.
In an extremely close and also bloody encounter, former Ukrainian amateur standout Eduard Skavinskiy (10-0, 6 KOs) survived a severe cut over his left eye, huge gashes and strong punches of potent Hungarian Laszlo Toth (27-5-1, 19 KOs) to come out with a split decision, not without slight controversy.
Toth and Skavinskiy engaged in a shoot-out right away. Both landed huge leather, troubling each other, hurting heads more than body sections and delivering pure entertainment for local crowd. Both sustained cuts and gashes, bleed as hell but gave their all. Final scores were: 77-76, 77-75, and 75-77 - for the Russia-based Ukrainian. Team Toth and Toth himself were disappointed with a verdict, and the fight itself certainly warrants a second try for both valiant combatants.
In a super featherweight eight-round non-title affair, Vladislav Krasnoshein retained his unbeaten record (7-0-1, 2 KOs) with a shutout unanimous decision over rugged Filipino Jon Jon Estrada (11-6-1, 10 KOs).
The fight was closer than final scores (80-72 x3 across the boards) suggest. Estrada started aggressively immediately rocking Krsnoshein with some looping shots. He then delivered more heat in mid rounds, although the Russian was smooth enough to avoid danger in a majority of exchanges and used his style to frustrated the opponent.
Super featherweight Mark "Canelo" Urvanov (15-2-1, 8 KOs) quickly dispatched South African veteran Pfariso Neluvhalani (12-14-2, 2 KOs), Neluvhulani was dropped once in the first round, and twice more in the second round, the last being a huge overhand left. Urvanov, 22, scored his second win since being held to a draw by Nikita Kuznetsov in September 2018.
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Recent Tajik expatriate Zafar Parpiev (7-1, 1 KO) endured some shaky moments but ultimately got the better of previously undefeated Thai import Aran Dipaen (2-1, 1 KO). Dipaen was dropped in the first but picked himself up and gave fits to Parpiev, fighting it to the end. It wasn't enough as Parpiev was awarded a unanimous decision over eight rounds at the end.
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In a slight upset, light heavyweight Denis Khamatov went in totally unprepared for huge punching power of big, muscular Gasan Gasanov, losing to him one-sidedly for the first time in his career. Gasanov dropped Khamatov down thrice in the first and finished the job with a big left hand with 40 seconds remaining in the second round. Gasanov, who works off the knife, improves his record to 16-7-1, 12 KOs.
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Rising Uzbek lightweight power Elnur Abduraimov made a quick work of Moscow-based Dmitry Khasiev (8-2-2, 2 KOs), stopping him at the conclusion of the second round.
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Uzbekistani super bantamweight prospect Mukhammad Shekhov (4-0, 2 KOs), 26, improved his record further with a workmanlike unanimous decision over durable Belarussian veteran Andrey Isaev (30-15, 9 KOs). Shekhov was considerably better in a majority of rounds but lost his steam in rounds three and five. Isaev was durable and tough but his reflexes were considerably worse than those of Shekhov. Isaev, 38, was never in danger of being stopped but ate a solid number of hard, cumulative punches. He has lost the eighth straight fight since his last win in 2016.
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All results courtesy of Alexey Sukachev..
Last edited by Ruthless-RKO on 23 Mar 2019, 14:55, edited 1 time in total.
The main event of the evening saw one of its most dominant performances, as Russia-based Tajik Shavkatdzhon "Shavkat" Rakhimov (14-0, 11 KOs) impressively retained his IBO super featherweight title for the third time, destroying South African import Rofhiwa Maemu in four complete rounds.
Awkward Maemu had nothing to present Rakhimov with, except, well, for awkwardness. He moved laterally (ran sometimes it seemed), ducked very low and threw from very unorthodox angles, then tried to grab and hold. Rakhimov, 24, was his opposite by showing classy orthodox approach, although it was hard to apply one to highly unorthodox Maemu.
Yet, Rakhimov, who acquired his belt in September 2017, delivered several punches in round one to calm Maemu down, continued with smart pressure in the second and in the third rounds, and finally got the job done with two hard body-shot knockdowns in round four. Maemu (now 18-8-2, 12 KOs) came back to his corner after the fourth, and almost immediately signalized the fight was off. It will come into the record books as the TKO 5 - for the WBC #4 and IBF #5 ranked Tajik.
Rakhimov looked good again, relentless aggression and just walked Maemu down and the left hands he scored the knockdowns with were sickeners, wasn't too surprised Maemu never came out for the 5th, Maemu was a bit of a tricky customer though and hard to pin down with his herky jerky movement , caught Rakhimov flush a couple of times in the 2nd, by the 3rd though Rakhimov was just beating him up and Maemu spent his time backpedalling, the bodyshots nearly folded him in half, especially the first KD
I like Rakhimov, good southpaw pressure fighter, this was a step down from Castellanos so hopefully he gets a decent test next
