Truscott Decisions Miskirtchian, Looks Mediocre

By Boxing News - 10/06/2008 - Comments

trusscot3233.jpgBy Nate Anderson: Commonwealth (British Empire) featherweight champion Paul Truscott (12-0, 1 KOs) defeated Alex Miskirtchian (13-2-1, 3 KOs) by a narrow eight-round decision in a non-title bout on Friday night at the Meadowside Leisure Centre, in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Truscott, 22, won by a 78-75 score but the bout appeared to be closer than that. Truscott, who won the Commonwealth (British Empire) featherweight title in May with a decision over Osumanu Akaba, fought well in the first four rounds, but then began to take a lot of punishment from the harder-punching, more aggressive Miskirtchian and appeared to lose rounds five, six and seven.

In the eighth and final round, however, Truscott dug deep and outworked Miskirtchian, and hit him with some really nice uppercuts on the inside as well as some stinging hooks to the head. Truscott’s better movement was the telling factor in the final round as he chose not to stand directly in front of the shorter Miskirtchian like he had in the previous three rounds of the fight. However, despite getting the win, looked very beatable throughout, taking a lot of shots from a fighter with little power and one that he should have been able to beat handily given his perceived better boxing skills.

Miskirtchian hit him often in rounds four through seven, and was able to lure the tall, 5’9″, string bean looking Truscott into a war at close range that was suited for his skinny frame and style of fighting. If not for the last round rally by Truscott, I personally would have scored it a draw. He looked barely better than Miskirtchian and too weak and fragile to fight the brawling type of bout that the fighter from Belgium turned the bout into.

In the early rounds, Truscott looked positively great, boxing beautifully from the outside where he stabbed at the slow moving Miskirtchian constantly with jabs, hooks to the body and head and straight right hands. Truscott threw a lot of combinations and moved laterally to keep Miskirtchian pretty much helpless to get his bigger shots in. In the third round, Miskirtchian began to press forward a lot more, and succeeded in landing a good amount of shots in the round. Truscott made it possible by giving ground and staying in one place as Miskirtchian would come boring in on him with his termite like attack.

Truscott’s brain seemed to be paralyzed, because he was fighting so well when he chose to move, and it seemed unthinkable that he would elect to stop and try and trade with the crude-slugging Miskirtchian at close range. Who knows? Maybe Truscott saw it as a badge of honor to try and fight this style of fight. Whatever the case, he narrowly won the round but took a lot of needless hits in the process. Truscott again took a lot of punishment in the 4th round, getting hit with some big left hand bombs from Miskirtchian, who was loading up with every shot he threw as he seemed intent on trying to take the skinny Truscott out.

However, Truscott landed a little more in the round and did just enough to win it, though it was close, very close. In rounds five through seven, the fight belonged all to Miskirtchian as he was the one throwing the combinations and landing hard shots against a confused looking Truscott. In the 7th round, Miskirtchian unloaded on Truscott on a couple of occasions with an enormous amount of unanswered blows. Truscott, desperate now, began holding and hitting and received a stern warning for it by the referee.

Miskirtchian finished the round in fine form, hitting Truscott over and over with hard combinations to the head. Going into the 8th round, it looked for the most part like Miskirtchian was going to easily win the round and perhaps either knot up the fight or maybe get a close decision. However, Truscott fought well, the best he had in several rounds, nailing Miskirtchian at close range with uppercuts to the head.

In the end, Truscott’s superior boxing skill was the telling factor in the fight, although he did little to instill confidence that he would be holding onto his Commonwealth title for very long.