By Erik Schmidt: EBU-EU light welterweight champion Giuseppe Lauri (48-6, 28 KO’s) defeated Finland’s Juho Tolppola (22-6, 9 KO’s) by a 10th round disqualification on Saturday night at the Hartwall Arena, in Helsinki, Finland. The fight was hilarious to watch due the constant fouling by Tolppola, who was penalized on two separate occasions for head butts and then landing a rabbit punch on the break.
Tolppola, however, continued to foul even after being docked two points, frequently diving in with his head, holding Lauri’s right arm and hitting, and occasionally throwing rabbit punches. In the 10th round, Tolppola landed a right hand to the back of Lauri’s head just as the referee was in the process of breaking the two fighters.
At that point, the referee Howard John Foster had seen enough from Tolppola and immediately stopped the action and disqualified Tolppola for the foul at 2:10 of the 10th. Seconds after the stoppage, a chunky looking man emerged from Tolppola’s corner and went after the referee and nailed him with a right hand to the midsection before he was tackled by one of the boxing officials in the ring, who pinned the irate man to the canvas.
I have no idea who the person was but they seemed to have missed the reason for Tolppola’s disqualification because the fight should have been stopped much earlier than the 10th due to Tolppola’s frequent fouling. I’d seen him fight before on another occasion against Italian Gianluca Branco in December 2008, and Tolppola fought a pretty clean fight in that bout.
However, on Saturday night he was like a wild animal, throwing head butts, holding and hitting, pulling down on Lauri’s head and just roughing him up needlessly. Apart from the constant fouling by Tolppola, the fight was all Tolppola, though, as he had the much better offensive skills and was dominating the inept Lauri in every round of the fight except for the 9th.
Tolppola controlled the action in the 1st, landing nice combinations and right hand and getting nothing thrown back at him from Lauri. Early in the round, Tolppola landed a right hand on the break, which kind of started the fouling. From there, Tolppola was warned a minute later for throwing a nice rabbit punch to the back of Lauri’s head which caused the referee to give him a warning.
A few seconds later, Tolppola head butted Lauri twice while in a clinch. It was a bizarre move because Lauri had landed almost zero punches in the round and hadn’t done anything to warrant the head butts. The round ended at that point and it looked as if the referee was going to let Tolppola get away with the head butts.
However, at the start of the 2nd round, the referee stopped the action and took two points away from Tolppola for the head butts. This seemed to really anger Tolppola who spent the better part of the round diving in with his head like a Billy goat.
Tolppola received warnings in the round for holding and hitting and then for diving in with his head. However, Tolppola continued to come in with his head twice more during the round. Other than the fouling, Tolppola was easily dominating the action over Lauri, who looked paralyzed with fear, as if he were afraid to be roughed up further if he were to throw some punches.
In the 3rd round, Tolppola was warned early in the round for placing his forearm across the face of Lauri. He continued to lead with his head after that and hold and hit. Again, it was another easy round for Tolppola as he was going most of the punching.
Tolppola dominated the 4th through 6th rounds with his combinations and right hands. Tolppolla continued to come in with his head down in each of the rounds. However, he added a new twist by grabbing Lauri around his neck and pulling him forward down towards the canvas.
The referee kept busy telling him to stop doing this. Tolppola also was spending a good deal of the rounds holding onto one of Lauri’s arms to prevent him from throwing. It was totally not needed because Lauri was throwing zero punches and was just taking shots from Tolppola in these rounds.
At the start of the 5th, Tolppola received a stern warning from the referee for holding Lauri. A short while later, Tolppola received a second warning for hooking his Lauri’s arm and pulling him. Tolppola continued to receive warnings in the 6th round holding Lauri.
In the 7th, Tolppola received a warning in the first minute of the round for grabbing Lauri around the head and pulling him forward. A little while later, Tolppola was docked a point for pulling Lauri’s head forward yet again.
In the 8th, Tolppola received a warning for hooking Lauri’s arm. He would later hook him around the arm again, and late in the round, Tolppola hit Lauri with a left hand on the break. Other than the extracurricular activity, Tolppola continued to dominate the rounds. In the 9th round, Lauri landed a flurry of weak shots in the last minute of the round to steal the round. Tolppola had fought well in the first two minutes of the round, landing the better shots but stopped punching in the last minute.
In terms of fouling, this was a pretty clean round for Tolppola. In the 10th, Tolppola was getting the better of the action until the referee went to separate Tolppola and Lauri, at which point Tolppola swung around the back of Lauri and landed a right hand rabbit punch to the back of Lauri’s head.
The referee then stopped the action and immediately disqualified Tolppola at 2:10 of the round for the accumulation of fouls. The referee was then attacked by a heavyset man that came flying from Tolppola’s corner. The man landed one right hand to the referee’s midsection before he was tackled and restrained.
This was the bout that originally was supposed to have WBA heavyweight champions Nikolay Valuev and champion in recess Ruslan Chagaev going up against each other to determine who the champion of the WBA would be. However, Chagaev failed the pre-fight medical examination due to an illness that was discovered. This fight, along with the separate bouts that featured Lamon Brewster and Kali Meehan bouts were also cancelled.
Shafikov Crushes Cotterill
Unbeaten light welterweight prospect Denis Shafikov (20-0, 11 KO’s) destroyed a badly over-matched John Cotterill (23-8, 10 KO’s) in the 1st round of a scheduled 8-round bout. Shafikov, 23, from Russia and now fighting out of Finland, had his right armed gabbed by a desperate Cotterill early in the 1st. Shafikov then responded by nailing Cotterill with his free left hand, tagging him seven consecutive times to put Cotterill down for the count. A badly hurt Cotterill attempted to beat the count but was counted out at 2:00 by referee Anssi Perajoki.
Of all the fighters on the card, Shafikov looked to be the best of a mediocre bunch in terms of talent. A southpaw, Shafikov went immediately after Cotterill at the start of the fight, hitting him with straight left hands to the head and landing nice jabs as well. Cotterill was able to land a couple of weak jabs.
However, it failed to slow Shafikov down as he came back with a hard right uppercut that snapped Cotterill’s head back hard. Cotterill attempted to attack Shafikov by pressing forward and firing right hands. Shafikov easily handled the pressure by backing up and continuing to fire straight left hands.
As they neared the ropes, Cotterill hooked Shafikov’s right arm preventing him from freeing it. Shafikov then responded by landing a series of straight left hands ending with a big chopping left hand that sent Cotterill down on the canvas. The referee then moved in and halted the bout before Cotterill could make it to his feet.
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