Zbik Stops Varon

By Boxing News - 03/21/2009 - Comments

zbik44234By Erik Schmidt: Unbeaten middleweight contender Sebastian Zbik (26-0, 10 KOs) stopped Spaniard Ruben Varon (31-5, 15 KOs) in the 4th round on Friday night to defend his WBO Inter-Continental middleweight title at the Sporthalle, Alsterdorf, in Hamburg, Germany. Zbik, 27, landed a powerful left-right combination to the head followed immediately by a blistering left hook to the midsection to put Varon down on his hands and knees in the 4th round.

The fight was then stopped at 2:13 of the round by the referee as Varon was still in too much pain from the body shot to get up and continue on.

Zbik, ranked #1 WBO, #2 in WBA and WBC, looked very impressive throughout the fight, jabbing well and throwing nice combinations. Zbik knocked Varon down with a left-right combination early in the 2nd round. When Varon rose to his feet, his nose was bleeding badly.

It would continue to bleed for the next two rounds without stop. Varon, 29, looked remarkably good for a fighter that was brought in just to be an opponent for the top ranked Zbik. Varon’s punch arsenal and his boxing skills were in many ways almost a mirrored image of Zbik, except that Varon didn’t let his hands go nearly as much as Zbik.

Varon’s two inch height disadvantage over the 5’11” Zbik, was a problem for him, because he was forced to take a lot of jabs and right hands from the outside. And when he would come in close to land body shots, Zbik often caught him on the way in with quick hooks and combinations.

Zbik mostly jabbed in the opening round, shooting out his jab again and again into the face of Varon. For his part, Varon was fighting back but only throwing one punch at a time and not nearly enough of them to match the constant downpour of jabs from Zbik in the round.

Early in the 2nd round, Zbik caught Varon with a huge chopping right hand that seemed to stun him slightly and cause him to back up to the ropes. Zbik then laid into him with a flurry of left-right combinations with Varon backed to the ropes, ending with Varon knocked to the canvas. His nose was a bloody mess after he got to his feet.

Zbik then followed up with 30 unanswered power shots while Varon covered up on the ropes. Somehow, Varon got off the ropes but continued to absorb terrible punishment for another half minute until Zbik punched himself out. At this point, Varon took over and began to land well with some right hands before the round ended.

The 3rd round was with Zbik matching his jabs against the big power shots from Varon. Like in the previous rounds, Zbik landed way more punches than Varon. However, Varon was landing the bigger shots and looking like the more technical fighter in the round.

In the 4th round, Zbik jabbed away at Varon for the first two minutes of the round, hitting him with little else than jabs. However, Varon opened up with a three punch combination to the body and head while Zbik covered up.

Then it was Zbik’s turn to fired off a three punch combo, landing a left-right to the head and then a big left to the body that dropped Varon on his hands and knees in visible pain. The fight was almost immediately stopped at 2:13 of the round when it was clear that Varon was too badly hurt to continue fighting.

Overall, Zbik looked really good and showed some nice technical skills. With his jab, powerful left hook and tendency to fight on the outside, he’d be a lot of problems for middleweight champions Kelly Pavlik, Arthur Abraham and Felix Sturm.