By Erik Schmidt: World Boxing Association heavyweight champion in recess Ruslan Chagaev (25-0-1, 17 KOs) defeated Carl Davis Drumond (26-1, 20 KOs) by a six-round technical decision tonight at the Stadthalle, Rostock, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The bout was stopped by referee Gustavo Padilla after the 6th round due to a bad cut over the left eye of Chagaev, caused by an accidental head butt in the 3rd. The fight then went to the score cards, giving Chagaev a narrow win by the scores of 58-56, 60-54 and 58-56.
Chagaev, 33, looked overweight and slower than he had been in his last fight a year ago in January 2008, a 12-round decision over Matt Skelton. Chagaev suffered a tear of his Achilles tendon while training for a July bout with Nikolay Valuev.
Chagaev, 30, controlled the first round landing straight left hands to the head of Drumond. Chagaev stayed on top of Drumond, backing him up and hitting him with jabs and left hands. Drumond, who looked to be in good shape physically, threw few punches in the first round and was content to circle the ring and throw short jabs that mostly missed.
In the 2nd round, Chagaev stalked Drumond around the ring, landing hard combinations to the head. Electing to use fast lunging attacks, Chagaev would come flying in and land hard left hands and swatting rights. Though the style proved to be effective against the offensively weak Drumond, it left Chagaev open for counter shots often.
His attacking style reminded me of the wild, wide open attacks of another German based fighter Marco Huck, who has a bad tendency to make crude charging attacks that often leave him open for counter shots on the way in. Chagaev, however, didn’t have to worry about that from Drumond, as he quickly proved to have few offensive skills.
Oh, he could punch at times, but it was very rare that he would throw more than a handful of shots, usually body punches, at any given time. Drumond did show good head movement, including the ability to skip around on his toes on the outside in a credible Ali imitation. At one point early on, he did an Ali shuffle and was warned by the referee about it. Drumond did little in the 2nd other than throw a few jabs and dance around.
Early in the 3rd, Drumond landed several hard body shots, driving Chagaev up against the ropes and working him over with several big punches to the midsection. Chagaev fought back, landing left hands. He landed a badly telegraphed left uppercut thrown from the outside at one point and it was a minor miracle that Drumond didn’t hit him with something as he was coming into land the badly telegraphed shot. Drumond suddenly opened up with several hard combinations, pulling Chagaev around the neck and shoving him rudely.
However, as Chagaev came dashing in with his usual out of control attack style, he banged heads with Drumond and was cut over his left eye. The cut was entirely Chagaev’s fault, since he was charging in constantly in the two previous rounds and it was bound to happen sooner or later with his wild attacks, which often led with his head first.
Drumond appeared to win the round with his hard body shots. Chagaev looked uncomfortable when he was getting hit to the midsection, which looked quite soft as if he were carrying around an extra 25 pounds of blubber.
At the start of the 4th, Chagaev once again came charging in, banging heads hard with Drumond. Luckily for both, there was no cut opened this time. However, Chagaev’s cut over his left eye was proving to be a big problem for him, with the blood dripping down into his left eye and covering the entire left side of his face in a masque of red blood.
The referee Gustavo Padilla stopped the action early in the 4th, walking Chagaev over to have the cut examined by the ringside doctor. The doctor quickly pawed at Chagaev’s cut in a cursory manner, and almost immediately allowed the fight to continue. Drumond began bouncing around the ring, and landing nice combinations to Chagaev’s midsection. Chagaev came back to land a handful of straight left hands to win the round by a narrow margin.
Chagaev once again rammed his head into Drumond in the 5th, charging into his full speed ahead early in the round. Chagaev fought well in the round, strafing Drumond with straight left hands one at a time. Drumond, for his part, was limited to only a few token shots in the round.
As the 6th round begun, the referee Gustavo Padilla once again stopped the action, walking Chagaev over to the ringside doctor so that he could examine it. The doctor wanted the fight to continue, as did the fans. The referee, though, appeared to want the fight to be stopped, showing a lot of concern for Chagaev’s bad cut over his left eye.
The fight was allowed to continue, however. Drumond looked as if he knew he didn’t have much time to score to state his case for victory, immediately attacking Chagaev hard with jabs and short combinations to the body. Drumond landed one nice right uppercut, snapping Chagaev’s head back hard but not hurting him.
Chagaev fought back and landed a number of nice left hands to the head. After the round ended, the referee then stepped in and halted the fight due to Chagaev’s cut left eye, taking the fight to the scorecards. Chagaev came out ahead, winning a technical decision by the scores of 58-56, 60-54 and 58-56.
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