By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated middleweight contender Sebastian Zbik (24-0, 9 KOs) won an easy 12-round unanimous decision over Brazilian John Anderson Carvalho (18-3-1, 11 KOs) to successfully defend his little-known WBO Inter-Continental middleweight title on Saturday night at the Burg-Waechter Castello, in Dusseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 119-109, 120-108 and 119-109. Zbik, ranked #1 in the World Boxing Organization, #3 in the WBA and #7 in the WBC middleweight rankings, had little problem from the slower, weaker shots from Carvalho and gave his a methodical beating. Zbik looked impressive, looking like a better offensive version of WBA middleweight champion Felix Stum, except without the defensive ability that Sturm possesses.
Zbik controlled the action in the opening round, using a powerful jab, combinations and a crisp right hand to keep Carvalho on the outside. Trained by Fritz Sdunek, the former trainer of Wladimir Klitschko, Zbik showed some of the same tendencies, good and bad, his fighting style.
His jab was outstanding and he probably could have defeated Carvalho with that alone. However, he showed fast combinations, which he would rip off from time to time, hitting Zbik three to five times within seconds. However, like Klitschko used to do, Zbik would often go into his shell, covering up with both hands when attacked. That’s something that needs to change for Zbik, because during the times he would do this, it was as if he had a sign glued to him saying ‘hit me.’ Against the soft opponent Carvalho it wasn’t a big deal, but when Zbik steps it up against a tougher fighter like Kelly Pavlik, Zbik will have problems if he uses that tactic.
For the most part, Zbik looked good in the first round, but mainly when he was on offense. He defense was rather porous to say the least, allowing Carvalho to hit him as often as he wanted. Only rarely did Zbik block any punches, even though he had both hands held up high near his head much of the time. It was as if he lacked hand coordination to know how to block incoming fire.
I suppose it didn’t matter, because Carvalho had his hands full trying to deal with the blistering speed and combinations coming from Zbik. It was sad, though, that Zbik could be so good on offense yet so poor with his defense. It looks as if Fritz has a lot of work to do with him before he’s ready to take on the likes of Pavlik or one of the other champions.
In rounds two through seven, Carvalho constantly came forward trying to match Zbik shot for shot. It was pointless, because he just didn’t have the hand speed or boxing skills that Zbik had, but Carvalho gave it his best shot to stay in the fight. When he was throwing punches he was fine, because Zbik would immediately shut down his own offense and start covering up. However, the problem for Carvalho would occur as soon as he stopped punching, which would be Zbik’s cue to start throwing his own shots once again.
Though not much of a power puncher, Zbik’s punch variety seems to more than make up for it. He has a large amount of punches he throws, most of them with a lot of speed. Unlike some middleweights, Zbik never throws just one punch at a time; Instead preferring to throw two to five shots in succession. Carvalho took the shots well and didn’t look hurt or frustrated at any time.
As the fight got into the later rounds, Zbik stepped up the pace of his shots, throwing many more than he had earlier as if he were trying to take Carvalho out. If that was his plan, it had no effect on him, for he took the shots without any problem and looked strong up until the end of the fight. In fact, he was still trying to match Zbik punch for punch until the final bell in the 12th round. The fight, however, was never close as Zbik was clearly a class above Carvalho in terms of boxing skills and raw ability.
Zbik looks better than most middleweights in the division if you were to focus mainly on his skills. However, his lack of power is going to be a problem for him when he eventually meets up with Pavlik or some other hard puncher in the middleweight division like Arthur Abraham. I do think that Zbik is much better than someone like John Duddy, whom he would probably give a boxing lesson if they were to ever fight.