In one of the very few Heavyweight contests Ukrainian giant Ivan Tkachenko (2-0, 2) made very light work of the over-matched Kostyantyn Gavrylov (0-2). Stood at 6'5" Tkachenko weighed in at a surprisingly light 209lbs and looks like he's in doubt as to whether or not he's a Heavyweight or a very tall Cruiserweight. We're hoping he can fill out into a fully fledged Heavyweight.
The past Saturday may have been a big one in the boxing world in general though unfortunately it was a quiet one in the Heavyweight division.
In one of the very few Heavyweight contests Ukrainian giant Ivan Tkachenko (2-0, 2) made very light work of the over-matched Kostyantyn Gavrylov (0-2). Stood at 6'5" Tkachenko weighed in at a surprisingly light 209lbs and looks like he's in doubt as to whether or not he's a Heavyweight or a very tall Cruiserweight. We're hoping he can fill out into a fully fledged Heavyweight.
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Friday night saw a little bit of Heavyweight action though in all honesty it was difficult to get too excited by it.
The most notable bout of the evening saw Hughie Fury (12-0, 7) fighting the out of shape David Gegeshidze (10-5-1, 2) who in all honesty made for a poor opponent. Gegeshidze, who came in at a career high 244lbs had amazingly put on 25lbs in the space of a month and it showed as his belly hung over his shorts and stamina lasted little more than two rounds. After the second round Fury went through the gears and easily broke down Gegeshidze who in all honesty did little to build on the hype Fury has been getting. In fact if anything Fury himself was as disappointing as the god awful opponent. Fury's wasn't the only early bout with another Heavyweight contest taking place in Europe, Sweden to be precise. This contest saw the unbeaten Joel Larsson (2-0, 1) stopping the win-less Marko Vucevic (0-2). Later on in the day we had action in Canada. This saw the unbeaten Samer Barakat (2-0, 2) traveling to Quebec where he defeated local debutant Mike Gales (0-1) via 2nd round TKO. There was also a late fight in Argentina where Juan Fernando Romero (2-1) managed to out point the debuting Angel Gustavo Schmitt (0-1) over 4 rounds. In a somewhat impressive the hard hitting Jarrell Miller (6-0-1, 6) continued to leave a wake of broken men in his wake.
The unbeaten 267lb American went in to what looked like a decent contest with the beatable but generally tough Willie Chisolm (7-19, 4) and scored a 2nd round TKO over Chisolm. It was just the third stoppage loss in 26 contests for For Chisolm and whilst he's not been fighting a murderers row it;s still impressive for Miller to have taken him out so quickly. The Heavyweight action returned to Slovakia once again this past Wednesday with a battle between Hungarians Istvan Ruzsinszky (12-8-1, 8) and Marton Cagany (1-4).
Competiting for the 10th time this year the busy Ruzsinszky managed to take a 6 round decision over his compatriot as he racked up his 7th win of the year, bouncing back well from a decision defeat to Ferenc Zsalek just a few weeks ago. We now expect Ruzsinszky to return this coming weekend to take on the unbeaten Belgian champion Ali Baghouz as he attempts to stay active. It's incredibly rare that two completely shot fighters face each other but that's what happened in Russia on Monday as former WBC champion Oleg Maskaev (39-7, 28) fought Britain's Danny Williams (44-19-0-1, 33). In their primes this would have been an interesting contest, sadly however both men are about a decade removed from their prime.
So far are they removed from their prime that Maskaev, who won on points, looked slower than sloth at times whilst Williams was so devoid of any spark that he couldn't take advantage of his 44 year old opponent. We're sorry for saying this but both men need to hang them up and the sooner the better. We never expect anything great on a Sunday in the Heavyweight division and this past weekend showed the sort of typical action we get in the division as bouts took place in the USA, Croatia and Slovakia.
We'll in the Croatia where German journeyman Muhammed Ali Durmaz (8-16, 7) scored a rare victory. Durmaz, who entered the bout on a 6 fight stoppage losing streak, was matched very easily against Dmitry Orlov (0-7) and managed to score a 4th round TKO. In Slovakia Zoltan Somosi (15-9, 7) managed to score a 6th round stoppage over fellow Romanian Vasil Mandea (3-6, 2) who suffered his second loss in just a few days. In the USA we had a surprisingly short day of action with just 144 seconds of Heavyweight action as Jelani Bitoy (1-0, 1) made a memorable debut. Facing fellow debutant Jamar Fuller (0-1), Bitoy made an immediate impact in his career. It's become less and less regular that the Heavyweight division is getting headlines. This Saturday however showed both the best and the worst of the Heavyweight division. We got a chance to see a somewhat exciting "old skool" Heavyweight battle and we got a chance to see a fighter who looked scared to be punched. It was certainly an interesting day in the division.
It was the first major Heavyweight bout of the day that was a bit of a stinker. Whilst we had unbeaten punchers colliding in the United Kingdom, as Australian Lucas Browne (18-0, 16) traveled around the world and took on England's very own Richard Towers (14-1, 11), the bout really struggled to come alive. The bout, a Commonwealth title eliminator, was shockingly bad for 4 rounds as Towers tried to fiddle and hold his way through the rounds. Due to the long arms of Towers he was managing to keep Browne at bay though did little else. Looking slightly frustrated Browne had began taking risks and seemed to shake up Towers at the very end of round 3 whilst also coming close in round 4. It wasn't until Browne launched his first really serious attack of the fight, which surprisingly came in round 5, however that we found out just how out of his depth Towers was. Browne came after him, forced him on to the ropes and unloaded forcing the referee to save Towers from any more punishment. Sadly the Englishman hardly landed a punch of note in a really disappointing performance. Following the bout Browne talked about fighting any of the British Heavyweights. A bout with David Price seems the most likely, considering that Browne is now the mandatory to Price's Commonwealth title, though a more interesting contest would be against Derreck Chisora in what could potentially be a real hard battle. Talking about hard battles that's exactly what American fans got as the big punching Magomed Abdusalamov (18-1, 18) suffered the first loss of his career. Matched against the highly regarded Cuban Mike Perez (20-0, 12) we knew somebodies "0" had to go again here, what we didn't expect however was that the bout would go the distance. It was obvious from the off that Perez had gotten up for this bout. The Cuban had in the past been criticised for being lazy and bored in the ring. This time however he was set to impress and was willing to take a shot from the big hitting Russian to land his own. The first round alone seem to have more leather thrown by both men than we saw in the entire of the Browne/Towers bout. Not only did we have a great start but the bout just got better and better as the guys traded round after round as they attempted to stop the other. Unfortunately whilst there was plenty of leather thrown the bout did become one sided in the middle rounds as a tired Abdulsalmov was busted up around the face suffering nasty swelling and cuts. The Russian showed no quit but was clearly on the losing side of this bout that showed how great the Heavyweight division can be when contenders face off in real 50-50 match ups. Please promoters give us more evenly matched bouts at this level! It wasn't just Perez and Browne that were successful however as in Argentina we saw the Argentinian Heavyweight champion Matias Ariel Vidondo (17-1-1, 15) fighting Uruguayan champion Yuberty Suarez Diaz (3-1, 1). In a battle between national champions it's fair to say that Argentina clearly came out on top as Diaz retired at the start of round 2 giving the hilarious out shape Vindondo his fourth victory of the year. Yet another unbeaten fighter suffered his first loss. Fighting in his home town of Connecticut Solomon Maye (1-1, 1) was stopped in the fourth round by Donnie Palmer (3-0-1, 3). This was a third stoppage in as many months for Palmer who is starting to look like a man to be avoided by novices. The loss for Maye was the fourth "0" to go in a day that was certainly worth remembering in the Heavyweight division. A man who kept his 0 was Irakli Gonashvili (5-0, 5) who kept up his 100% record with a third round stoppage of the fragile Pavel Siska (6-33-1, 4) a man who has now been stopped 29 times in 40 contests. In a bout with no "0" involved Enobong Umohette (9-1, 8) defeated journeyman Dante Craig (20-17-1, 15) in a bout for the USA Wisconsin State Heavyweight title. Amazingly this was Craig's 15th stoppage loss and his fourth in less than 12 months, an amazingly bad record for a member of the 2000 US Olympic team. Whilst the US may be widely viewed as the "home of boxing" it's big challenger in recent years has been Germany which has been one of the busiest countries for both bouts in general and world title bouts.
It was in Germany this past Friday night that we had the most notable Heavyweight bout of the evening as the experienced Alexander Petkovic (48-4-4, 28) retained his GBU world title. Matched up against the under-sized and unknown Chupaki Chipindi (11-5, 6), Petkovic had no real trouble in defending his title. The bout, which was televised in Europe, saw Petkovic stopping his opponent in the fourth of a scheduled 12. |