Povetkin stops Wawrzyk; Guillermo Jones defeats Lebedev

By Boxing News - 05/17/2013 - Comments

Hasim Rahman vs Alexander Povetkin(Picture: Photo Wende) By Scott Gilfoid: In embarrassingly easy victory, WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (26-0, 18 KO’s) easily stopped previously unbeaten fringe contender Andrzej Wawrzyk (27-1, 13 KO’s) in the 3rd round of a three-knockdown performance on Friday night at the Crocus City Hall, in Moscow, Russia.

Povetkin dropped Wawrzyk once in the 2nd round from a hard right hand, and then twice in the 3rd round. After the second knockdown in the 3rd, referee Russell Mora halted the fight at 2:28 with Wawrzyk still down from a left hand to the head.

Povetkin knocked Wawrzyk with a right hand shortly into the 2nd round. After he landed the shot, Wawrzyk kind of slid to the canvas like molasses. The referee should have stopped the fight right then and there because the fight was effectively over. Wawrzyk’s nose was bleeding like a faucet, but the mismatch continued until Povetkin finished him off with a left hand to the head.

The 6’5” Wawrzyk looked terrified from the get go with him throwing weak jabs and looking like he had a bad case of stage fright. Povetkin stunned Wawrzyk with the first right hand he threw in the first round, and I was surprised that Wawrzyk didn’t hit the canvas.

What’s sad is that Wawrzyk came into the fight with a ranking of #7 by the WBA, and that’s just baffling to try and understand when saw how truly he looked in the fight. Why on earth did the World Boxing Association have this guy ranked in the top 15? They had to have seen how poor he looked in his previous fights.

David Haye wanted to fight Wawrzyk, and I am totally not surprised at that given how soft he looked. Haye would have looked like a world beater in knocking this guy out in one round, and boxing fans wouldn’t have had a clue that it was because Wawrzyk just isn’t very good.

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41-year-old former WBA cruiserweight champion Guillermo Jones (39-3-2, 31 KO’s) used his huge height, reach and weight advantage to stop WBA cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev (25-2, 19 KO’s) in the 11th round. Jones closed Lebedev’s left eye and wore him down before dropping him with a left hand in the 11th. The fight was then halted at 1:54 of the round by the referee.

The fight should have arguably been stopped by the 6th round because Lebedev’s left eye was completely closed by that point. Lebedev showed a lot of heart by continuing to fight and getting the better of Jones with power shots. However, Lebedev wore down by the 9th round, and Jones took over the fight and gave him a beating until Lebedev hit the deck in the 11th.

Other boxing action:

Dmitry Chudinov RTD 3 Grady Brewer
Eduard Troyanovsky KO 2 Luis Zambrano
Alexey Stakanchikov KO 2 Oney Valdez
Arif Magomedov TKO 3 Segundo Herrera



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