Kentikian Defeats Toktaulova

By Boxing News - 12/06/2008 - Comments

Image: Kentikian Defeats ToktaulovaBy Erik Schmidt: WBA female flyweight and WIBF Women’s International Boxing Federation flyweight champion Susi Kentikian (23-0, 16 KOs) defeated Anastasia Toktaulova (13-10, 2 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision at the Sporthalle Brandberge, Halle an der Saale, in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. Kentikian, 21, dominated the fight with her more powerful combinations for most of the fight. However, she struggled to land throughout the fight, missing often with her punches against the constantly moving Toktaulova.

In the last three rounds, the tank-like Kentikian tired out, and was hit much more often by Toktaulova. However, by then, Kentikian had built up a sizable lead and was able to cruise to victory with her substantial lead.

Kentikian stalked the Russian Toktaulova in the early rounds of the fight, but found it very hard to catch up to her for more than a moment without Toktaulova quickly moving away from her. In terms of built, Toktaulova appeared much more suited for a fast pace fight, as she was slim, trim and very active.

The problem for her, however, was that she had little power and much less developed offensive skills than Kentikian and was unable to match her big power shots. Both fighters threw a lot of flurries, but more often than not, both would miss with the vast majority of their shots, making them look unskilled.

The third and 4th rounds were very close, with Toktaulova staying on the move and landing punches from the outside. The movement kept the shorter, 5’1″ Kentikian from landing her hard combinations, limiting her to a hard punch here and there.

The 4th was close until the end of the round when Kentikian cornered Toktaulova and landed a flurry of shots. In the 5th round, Toktaulova fought well, landing hard left hands and rights to the head of the slower moving Kentikian, winning the round.

Kentikian came back in the 6th round, again winning a close round with a slightly better work rate. However, Toktaulova landed a couple of good right hands to the head of Kentikian, making the round close enough for it to be up for grabs.

The 7th round was also close, with Toktaulova landing a number of good right hands to the head of Kentikian. In the 9th and 10th, Toktaulova was clearly the better fighter, out-landing Kentikian, showing better movement and having much more compared the exhausted looking Kentikian.

The final judges’ scores were 98-92, 99-92 and 99-92.