By Erik Schmidt: Making his pro debut, 2008 Olympic super heavyweight Bronze Medalist for Ukraine Vyacheslav Glazkov (1-0) defeated Ozcan Cetinkaya (15-6-1, 9 KO’s) by a four round decision at the Sports Complex Krylatskoe, in Moscow, Russia on Thursday night. Glazkov, 24, showed very little in the way of power, as he gave Cetinkaya a one-sided beating for four rounds.
It was mostly one way traffic for most of the bout, because Cetinkaya, 31, looked to be a survival mode from the opening bell and didn’t try very hard to mount any kinds of attacks. The 1st round consisted of Glazkov drilling Cetinkaya with jabs in the first half of the round, and then opening up with combinations in the second part.
Glazkov went right hand crazy in the last minute of the round, hitting Cetinkaya repeatedly with right hands. However, the punches were thrown very slow and without a lot of power. It may be that Glazkov is still stuck in the amateur mode of fighting in which fighters throw a lot of weak shots to score points and don’t go after knockouts as much. In the 2nd round, Glazkov stalked Cetinkaya around the ring, hitting him with a lot of jabs while Cetinkaya moved from corner to corner trying to cover up.
Glazkov threw mainly right hands in the last minute and thirty seconds of the round, and looked really one dimensional. In the third round, Cetinkaya threw a total of three punches and spent the better part of the round just covering up and taking shots.
Again, Glazkov mostly threw slow right hands without much power and did little damage to Cetinkaya. The 4th round was all Glazkov, as he pounded Cetinkaya with combinations over and over again, and didn’t have to worry about any return fire from him. Cetinkaya three a total of three punches in this as well, staying consistent with his anemic work rate.
Overall, I wasn’t impressed with Glazkov. He seems to lack hand speed, power and a punch arsenal. Unless he improves in with his power, I can’t see him being a factor in the heavyweight division.
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In other action, undefeated Russian light heavyweight prospect Vasily Lepikhin (7-0, 4 KO’s) won an unimpressive eight-round split decision over Roman Simakov (6-1, 4 KO’s). The final judges’ scores were 77-74, 78-74 for Lepikhin and 76-75 for Simakov. Lepikhin, 24, knocked Simakov down with a short right hook in the 3rd round while backed up against the ropes.
Aside from that, however, Simakov, 24, appeared to when every round but the 8th with his heavy pressure. Lepikhin spent most of the fight either glued to the ropes taking shots or running around the ring trying to avoid Simakov’s aggressive attacks.
The 8th round was a tough round to score, because Lepitkhin ran for the entire three minutes. However, he did land a few more shots in the round than Simakov, but the constant movement got in the way of the action and it was hard to score the round for Lepikhin, because he was merely trying to run out the clock and not fighting to win. I had Simakov winning the fight.
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Perhaps the most talented fighter on the card undefeated lightweight Dmitry Ganiev (10-0, 4 KO’s) made easy work of Thailand’s Sapapetch Sor Sakaorat (14-6, 9 KO’s), stopping him in the 3rd round. Ganiev, caught Sakaorat on the ropes in the 3rd round and dropped him twice with combinations to the head.
After Sakaorat got up for the second time, the referee took him over to the ringside doctor who advised that the fight be stopped after a quick examination of the Thailand fighter. The fight was entirely one-sided like the other fights on the card, as Ganiev was on top of Sakaorat for the entire three rounds hitting him with hard combinations to the head and body.
Sakaorat rarely threw anything back, and when he did, Ganiev would counter him immediately with hooks to the head and body. Unlike some Russian fighters who don’t punch well to the body, Ganiev proved to be an excellent body puncher and looked a lot like Ricky Hatton at times the way he threw his body shots.
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Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Magomed Abdusalamov (5-0, 5 KO’s) destroyed Sherzod Mamajanov (6-9, 2 KO’s) in a 1st round blowout. Abdsalamov, 28, trapped Mamajanov, 29, against the ropes midway into the fight and after measuring him with his right hand he dropped Mamajanov to the canvas with a big left hook to the head. Badly hurt, Mamajanov tried to get up but was counted out by the referee at 1:40 of the 1st round.
Early in the round, Mamajanov had been landing weak flurries to the midsection of Abdusalamov. However, the punches had no effect and Abdusalamov, who was smiling through much of the fight, turned the attack on Mamajanov and began to beat him up with big left hands while he covered up on the ropes.