Krzysztof Wlodarczyk stops Kai Kurzawa

By Boxing News - 05/28/2016 - Comments

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By Jim Dower: Former WBC cruiserweight champion Krzysztof “Diablo” Wlodarczyk (51-3-1, 37 KOs) had too much for 39-year-old German Kai Kurzawa (37-5, 25 KOs) in stopping him in the 4th round on Saturday night to win the vacant IBF Inter-Continental cruiserweight belt in Szczecin, Poland.

The 34-year-old Wlodarczyk knocked Kurzawa down twice in the fight in putting him down once in the 3rd and a final time in the 4th round to get the victory.

This was Wlodarczyk’s second straight win since losing his WBC cruiserweight title to Russian Grigory Drozd by a 12 round unanimous decision in September 2014. Wlodarczyk was well beaten by Drozd in losing by the scores of 118-109, 119-108 and 119-108. In Wlodarczyk’s last fight, he defeated 39-year-old Valery Brudov by a 12 round decision last March.

Wlodarczyk can still punch as we saw tonight. He’s a threat to any of the current champions in the division. He’s going to need to make his move soon if he wants to have a chance of winning another belt. There are a lot of younger contenders moving up like Murat Gassiev and Olesandr Usyk moving up the ranks. The young lions could be a problem for Wlodarczyk as he continues to age. Wlodarczyk has limitations to his game, as we saw in his loss to Drozd, but he can beat a lot of guys that come straight at him. He has problems against clever boxers with good punching power. He’ll likely struggle against Usyk and Glowacki.

In other action on tonight’s card in Szczecin, Poland, heavyweight Krzysztof Zimnoch (19-1-1, 13 KOs) defeated 37-year-old journeyman Konstantin Airich (23-17-2, 18 KOs) by a 4th round knockout. Zimnoch knocked Airich down in the 4th, and the finished him after he got back up. Airich has now lost four out of his last five fights.

Other boxing results on the card:

Michal Cieslak TKO 9 Alexander Kubich