By Nate Anderson: Big heavyweight prospect Larry “The War Machine” Olubamiwo (4-0, 4 KOs) destroyed his Polish opponent Michal Skierniewski (3-4, 1 KOs) in the 1st round on Friday night at the Leisure Center, in Newham, London. Olubamiwo, 30, walked right through Skierniewsk’s shots early in the round and quickly dropped him with two big right hand to the head. Referee Dave Parris immediately stopped the bout at 1:01 of the 1st round as Skierniewsk was too hurt to get up.
Indeed, Skierniewsk stayed down for a long time after the knockdown on his side. When he did finally get up, he immediately staggered and fell back on the canvas looking really hurt.
The fight had little action in it before Olubamiwo hurt Skierniewsk with a big right hand and put him away. However, Skierniewsk landed first in the round with a right hand to the head of Olubamiwo. Skierniewsk followed with a nice left hand and a couple of jabs. Then Olubamiwo took over, hitting Skierniewsk with a jab, right hook and then a right uppercut from the outside as he reached in with his long arms to land it.
He looked more than a little musclebound and awkward doing this, but nonetheless the punch landed and hurt Skierniewsk. Olubamiwo then landed a big right hand to the jaw of Skierniewsk, sending him down to the canvas on his side and was promptly counted out by referee Dave Parris at 1:01 of the round.
The 6’4″ 263 pound Olubamiwo has one of the most imposing physiques in the heavyweight division, even more impressive than the Klitschko brothers. He looks like a bigger version of Ike Ibeabutchi with even more imposing muscles. However, with his great size there’s a drawback with his lack of hand speed. Indeed, he’s very slow when it comes to punching and his defensive is very poor.
However, he’s working on both and although probably won’t ever be much faster than he is now, his defense will likely improve in the future. With his incredible power, though, he may not need a lot of hand speed of defense because whatever he hits, he hurts.
At the center of the ring, he has problems with movement and with landing his slow shots. However, when he’s able to bull his opponents into to the ropes, he’s much more effective and landing his big, slow punches. I doubt he’ll be a factor on the world level due to his lack of speed, but on the local level I can see him winning a British championship in the future with the kind of power he has.
“I was told to keep on the jab and swing the right hand in,” Olubamiwo said after the fight. “I think I caught him leaning in there. I am working massively on by technique and stamina. My training is mainly directed at my technique and stamina, not my power. My power’s god given.”
In other action on the card, featherweight prospect Akaash Bhatia (14-0, 5 KOs) stopped an over-matched Elemir Rafael (3-28-1) in the 1st round of a scheduled eight-round bout. Bhatia, 25, knocked Rafael down twice in the round. After the second knockdown, a right hand to the head, the fight was stopped by referee Richard James Davies at 2:23 of the round.
Bhatia, whose fighting style is similar to Naseem Hamed, stalked Rafael around the ring in the opening second of the round, hitting him with right hands and leaning away from return fire from Rafael. It was immediately clear that Bhatia was much faster and hard to hit due to his upper body movement.
He didn’t use his hands to block shots like some fighters, but instead left hands down in front of him like Roy Jones Jr. and Hamed, using his torso to bend and twist out of the way of incoming shots.
Early in the round, Rafael attempted to land a right hand, but was immediately countered by a right to the body from Bhatia that sent Rafael down in pain. After Rafael got up, he was hit with a left-right combination then another left to the body and final a right hand to the head. Referee Richard James Davies then stepped in and stopped the action at 2:23 of the round.