Photo: Tom Casino/SHOWTIME – By Sam Gregory: The undercard for tonight’s showdown on Showtime at The Pond in Anaheim was a battle between WBC No. 5 ranked contender Antonio DeMarco 20-1-1 with 14 KO’s and “Kid Diamond” Almazbek Raiymkulov 27-2-1 with 15 KO’s for the vacant WBO and NABO lightweight title’s.
Raiymkulov started out in the first round slow and deliberate landing some good punches but due to his opponents southpaw style he fell victim to an unintentional head-butt early on. Raiymkulov was the more experienced fighter going into this bout with an amateur career that included representing his country of Kyrgyzstan in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Kid Diamond’s experience showed as he landed some good shots and seemed to be ahead in the fight for the first 2 rounds. In the third round DeMarco developed a cut over his left eye with another unintentional clash of heads. DeMarco landed some clean shots in the round seeming to give his opponents trouble with his southpaw style.
Both fighters picked up the action in the fourth round and began an all-out brawl in the center of the ring. The fighters began to loosen-up and each man landed some solid punches. It was DeMarco’s stiff right jabs that keep Raiymkulov at bay through the middle rounds. The fight was close at this point and at the end of the fourth round press row had the score even on all three cards.
The fighter’s banged heads again in the fifth round. Kid Diamond picked up the pace in the fifth round and landed some good shots but it was DeMarco that rallies at the end of the round putting him ahead on the scorecards.
The fight stayed close through the middle rounds and really could have gone either way at that point. Then in the ninth round DeMarco landed two solid body shots that staggered Kid Diamond twice in the round. By the last 5 seconds of the ninth round DeMarco pummeled his opponent with solid punches having him in the corner of the ring and hurt. At the end of the ninth round, Raiymkulov wobbled back to his corner using the ropes to hang on to.
After the ninth round Kid Diamond’s cornermen along with the ringside doctor called a halt to the fight when they discovered their fighter had a broken nose and had taken way too much punishment at that point.
Antonio DeMarco won the fight by way of a 9th round TKO improving his record to 20 wins with 1 lose and 1 draw along with 14 KO’s. “Kid Diamond” Almazbek Raiymkulov fell to 27 wins with 2 loses and 1 draw along with 15 KO’s having lost his second fight by KO.