Chakhkiev stops Mehmed

By Boxing News - 10/14/2009 - Comments

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Making his pro debut, 2008 Olympic heavyweight Gold Medalist for Russia Rakhim Chakhkiev (1-0, 1 KO’s) defeated Bulgarian Tayar Mehmed (1-1) by a 2nd round of a scheduled four round bout on Saturday night at the Stadthalle, Rostock, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Chakhkiev, 26, now fighting as a cruiserweight, looked very impressive in the fight, showing really heavy hands as he blasted away at the 26-year-old Mehmed for two rounds.

Mehmed showed a great chin, staying upright despite getting hit with some mammoth shots from Chakhkiev in the first round. Chakhkiev, a southpaw, looked much more powerful than he was in the Olympics when he picked up the Gold Medal. When he landed shots, it made a loud noise each time his punches made contact with Mehmed and seemed as if it were a heavyweight match rather than a cruiserweight fight.

In the 2nd round, Chakhkiev landed a big looping left hand that dropped Mehmed to the canvas. Somehow he made it back to his feet, but the fight was immediately stopped at that point because Mehmed was in no condition to keep fighting.

In the 1st round, Chakhkiev fought at a measured pace, mostly landing heavy left hands to the head of Mehmed. Although Chakhkiev wasn’t loading up with his shots, the impact was like dynamite each time he landed his shots. He hits hard. Chakhkiev didn’t show a lot of hand speed like former cruiserweight champion David Haye, but he didn’t need to because he crowded Mehmed and roughed up in close with his power.

In the last 30 seconds of the round, Chakhkiev turned up the gas and really went after Mehmed, raining powerful combinations on him until the round ended. Earlier in the round, Chakhkiev had been landing largely nothing but hard lefts to the head, and not using his right all that much for anything.

But once Chakhkiev started opening up with combinations, he looked much more dangerous and it was clear that Mehmed wouldn’t be able to stand up to that kind of sustained punishment for long without folding. For his part, Mehmed threw very few punches in the round and seemed more concerned with trying to block Chakhkiev’s heavy power shots.

In the 2nd round, Chakhkiev went back to throwing one shot at a time and loading up with everything he threw. Chakhkiev continued to focus on throwing left hands and rarely throwing rights. Finally, Chakhkiev caught Mehmed with a big left that put him down. The fight was then stopped after Mehmed got back o his feet.

Overall, it was an impressive performance by Chakhkiev. He showed a lot of power when he was letting his hands go and he might be a factor in the cruiserweight division in the future if his German handlers can get him to throw more combinations and to use his right hand more. He’s kind of a rugged cruiserweight and looks like could go toe-to-toe with the best fighters in the division without breaking apart and getting taken out.