By Eric Schmidt: Undefeated super featherweight Vitali Tajbert (15-0, 6 KOs) defeated Spain’s Jesus Garcia Escalona (15-1, 6 KOs) by a narrow 12-round unanimous decision on Friday night to capture the EBU-EU (European Union) super featherweight title at the Sporthalle, Alsterdorf, in Hamburg, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 115-113, 115-114 and 115-113. I had the fight scored a draw. However, it could have gone either way, as many of the rounds were extremely close making it difficult to tell who the clear winner was.
Tajbert, 25, formerly from Kazakhstan and now living and fighting out of Germany, ranked #14 in the WBA super featherweight division, controlled the action in the first two rounds with his jab and excellent body work. Taybert was easily on his way to winning the 3rd round when he he got tagged with a big right hook from Escalona at the bell that badly staggered Tajbert. In the fourth round, Tajbert stayed mostly on the outside, attempting to recover from the previous round’s action. Escalona used the lull in activity by Tajbert to press the action, throwing a lot of punches to the head of Tajbert.
In the fifth round, Tajbert came back and narrowly won the round with the use of his uppercuts on the inside. However, Escalona caqme back strong in the sixth, winning the round with sustained combinations. Tajbert, an excellent outside fighter, could only back up as Escalona kept pressing forward working his way on the inside, an area where Tajbert was less skilled at fighting. Tajbert used good counter-punching to come in the 7th round, tagging Escalona each time he would attempt a shot.
In rounds eight and nine, Escalona’s activity took over the fight, as he badly out-landed Tajbert, who was reduced almost to a punching bag during this time. Tajbert finally came back to win the 10th, in a round that was very close. Both fighters landed almost equal, but the German crowd made it hard to choose against Tajbert due to their loud applause each time he would land. In the 11th, Tajbert essentially gave the round away by using a lot of sideways movement, in which he circled the ring trying to avoid contact.
It was a bad move on his part, for I had the fight almost even at that point. With the fight on the line, Tajbert came back strong in the 12th and narrowly won the round. It was another very close round and hard to tell which fighter actually won it. Overall, it was a good fight for both fighters. However, neither of them distinguished themselves as the clear winner, which is rather disappointing. Tajbert, however, appears to have a brighter future due to his youth, but his power, or lack thereof, will be a major problem as he moves forward against higher quality opposition in the super featherweight division. I don’t like his chances when he finally steps it up against a more powerful puncher, someone like Edwin Valero.