Povetkin defeats Wach; Lebedev, Afolabi & Durodola also win – results

By Boxing News - 11/04/2015 - Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmyUwh-m6jk

By Jim Dower: Using his sharp punches to the head and body, #1 WBC heavyweight contender Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) dominated the bigger 6’7 1/2″ Mariusz Wach (31-2, 17 KOs) in beating him by a 12th round knockout on Wednesday evening at the Basket Hall Arena in Kazan, Russia. Povetkin, 36, kept his WBC Silver heavyweight title with the win. The fight was stopped in the 12th by the advice of the ringside doctor, who determined that Wach’s cut over his left eye was too severe for the fight to be allowed to continue.

The 6’2″ Povetkin wasn’t able to get enough power on his shots for him to ever really hurt the much heavier Wach. The Polish fighter came into the fight 28 pounds heavier then Povetkin. The size and height advantage for Wach meant that many of Povetkin’s shots were leaping left hooks and right hands that didn’t have the power on them to hurt his opponent. Povetkin is much better against shorter fighters that closer to his own height. The fight looked like a contest between a heavyweight and a cruiserweight. Povetkin didn’t have the size to ever hurt Wach.

In the 4th round, Povetkin suffered a cut under over his left eye from a right hand from Wach. It was a bad cut, but Povetkin’s corner did a good job of slowing the bleeding in thbe subsequent rounds.

When the fight was halted in the 12th round due to Wach’s cut, he was no in any trouble. He looked strong and reach to finish out the round.

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Using his powerful left hand, WBA cruiserweight champ Denis Lebedev (28-2, 21 KOs) knocked his over-matched opponent Lateef Kayode (21-1, 16 KOs) down three times on Wednesday night in winning by an 8th round knockout. Lededev dropped Kayode with a scorching left hand early in the 8th round.

Lebedev then landed two more lefts to the head to put Kayode down for the second time in the round. Lebedev then landed six more lefts to the head of Kayode to get the stoppage, as referee Steve Smoger decided he’d seen enough and decided to stop the contest.

In the 7th round, Lebedev knocked Kayode down with a right-left combination late in the round. Kayode, 32, protested the knockdown, saying that he’d been pushed to the canvas. Kayode had a good argument that it was a push, as the left hand that dropped him was more of a push than an actual punch. But none the less, the initial right hand from Lebedev hurt Kayode and appeared to him falling. The cuffing left hand merely finished the job.

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35-year-old Ola Afolabi (22-4-3, 11 KOs) kept his career alive with a come from behind 5th round KO over IBO cruiserweight champion Rakhim Chakhkiev (23-2, 18 KOs).

Afolabi flattened the 32-year-old Chakhkiev with a left hook to the head in the 5th round that planted the Russian on his face out cold. The referee briefly looked at Chakhkiev to see if he would get up, but he then stopped the fight when he realized he wasn’t conscious. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:44 of the round.

#3 WBC, #4 IBF, #11 WBA Chakhkiev made a mistake in going all out in the first three rounds by starting too quickly. Chakhkiev dominated those rounds. However, when the 35-year-old Afolabi was still around after the 3rd, Chakhkiev was fighting on fumes starting in the 4th. Afolabi then jabbed and pot shotted the gassed out Chakhkiev in the 4th round. Chakhkiev was still exhausted in the 5th round, when Afolabi hurt him with a hard right to the head. A moment later, Afolabi tagged Chakhkiev with short left hook to the head that sent the Russian fighter down face first on the canvas. There would be no getting back up from that shot for Chakhkiev. He was out cold and unable to stir for several moments.

Earlier in the fight in the 3rd, Afolabi suffered a cut over his left eye from a clash of heads. Chakhkiev teed off on Afolabi in attempting to finish him off after the cut, but Afolabi proved to be tough and able to take his shots. Afolabi took a horrible pounding in the last part of the round, but he did a good job of absorbing the punches without crumbling.

Chakhkiev used the wrong approach to the fight. For a guy with a history of stamina problems, Chakhkiev should have realized that he needed to pace himself if he wanted to win the fight. He wasn’t going to be able to KO a guy with a steel chin like Afolabi. The strategy that Chakhkiev used for the fight was backwards to say the least. If it was his trainer that told him to start out fast, then he needs to think about getting a new trainer because it was a poorly thought out plan. Nobody knocks out Afolabi, and Chakhkiev shouldn’t have tried to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chKkXKZlRxg

In a huge upset, #4 WBC cruiserweight contender Olanrewaju Durodola (22-2, 20 KOs) stopped the highly hyped knockout artist #3 WBC Dmitry Kudryashov (18-1, 18 KOs) in the 2nd round to capture the vacant WBC Silver cruiserweight title.

Durodola, 35, hurt Kudryashov with a big right hand in the 2nd round while he was backed against the ropes. Durodola then teed off with big right hands one after another against a confused and hurt looking Kudryashov until referee Jay Nady stepped in and halted the fight at 2:29 of the round.

Nady gave Kudryashov a huge break by letting the fight go as long as he did. Kudryashov needed to clinch to try and get himself out of the round, but he failed to do so.

Durodola came on strong in the 2nd round in taking the fight to the inside against the 30-year-old Kudryashov. Durodola proved to be the much better fighter on the inside, as he was able to nail Kudryashov with punch after punch with a lot of power on it. Instead of Kudryashov of getting off the ropes to the center of the ring so that he could get his space to put his power on his shots, he stayed against the ropes and took a beating.

When the fight was halted, Kudryashov’s face was badly reddened. His face would have fallen apart had the fight gone much longer. He was taking too much punishment.

Kudryashov can rebuild his career, but he needs a lot of work and a good trainer. Despite being 30-years-old, Kudryashov is still a very, very raw fighter with a lot of knowledge gaps in his game. He didn’t realize that he needed to stay in the center of the ring, and he failed to clinch after he got hurt. Kudryashov might have been too cocky after hurting Durodola in the 1st round and figured that he was going to be able to dominate regardless of where the fight was fought. But he should have realized that he was in with a hard puncher that he couldn’t take chances with.

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In a another upset on the card, IBF light welterweight champion Cesar Cuenca (48-1, 2 KOs) lost his unbeaten record and his IBF 140lb title in getting stopped by the much stronger 35-year-old #11 IBF fringe contender Edward Trojanowski (23-0, 20 KOs) by a 6th round knockout. Cuenca, 34, tried to move around the ring to box the hard hitting Trojanowski, but it didn’t work. In the 6th, both guys went down. Cuenca failed to get to his feet and the fight was halted. With the loss, Cuenca came up short in equaling the late great Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record.

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Other boxing results on the card:

Dmitry Bivol TKO 4 Junior Jackson
Viskhan Murzabekov TKO 3 Solomon Bogere



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