By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated flyweight prospect Pal Bedak (2-0, 2 KOs) stopped Laurent Ucristinel Balmau (0-1) in the 3rd round of a scheduled four-round bout on Saturday night on the undercard of Karoly Balszay vs. Denis Inkin bout at the Bordelandhalle, Magdeburg, in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. Bedak, 23, a 2004 Olympian for the Hungary amateur team, dropped Balmau with big sweeping left hook in the 3rd round.
After Balmau got up, the lightning fast Bedak went after him, landing a flurry of punches while Balmau tried in vain to cover up on the ropes. The referee then stepped in and halted the fight at 2:10 of the 3rd.
Bedak, nicknamed “Little Big Man” for his small 5’1″ height, went after Balmau from the opening bell, pressuring him and hitting him with fast combinations. Balmau, 5’6″, tried using his superior height to jab from the outside, but Bedak, who looks slightly like a smaller version Kostya Tszyu, would come flying inside and land three and four punch combinations.
In the 2nd round, Bedak went after Balmau at the start of the round, hitting him with hard left-right combinations. Near the end of the round, Bedak began rushing forward and throwing flurries of hard punches. Though only 5’1″, Bedak had very heavy hands and with his vastly superior hand speed, Balmau was way over-matched. When Balmau would try to throw a punch, Bedak would often catch him before he could land with a fast shot.
In the 3rd round, Belmau found some success early on landing jabs from the outside. However, the success was short-lived as Bedak began moving in fast with combinations and then getting. A short time into the round, after getting hit with a rare combination from Balmau, Bedak threw a big sweeping left hook, catching Balmau on the side of the head and dropping him to the canvas badly hurt.
The referee then gave Balmau a standing eight count. Following the restart of the action, Bedak was all over Balmau, hitting him with a blizzard of punches as he helplessly tried to block the shots. The referee then stepped in and halted the fight while Balmau was still standing and trying to block punches.
The fight looked as if it could have gone a little while longer but given the fact that Balmau was mostly a punching bag at this point in the fight, it’s probably for the better that the referee stopped the fight when he did.
Bedak looked very impressive and with his speed and power, he might be able to make a name for himself in the flyweight division in the future. His lack of height hardly matters because of his speed and power. He reminds me of a mini Ricky Hatton/Mike Tyson combination.