By Erik Schmidt: Once beaten light middleweight contender Zaurbek Baysangurov (22-1, 16 KO’s) defeated Eromosele Albert (22-2-1, 10 KO’s) by a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision last Saturday night at the Dynamo, in Grozny, Russia. The final judges’ scores were 119-109, 119-109 and 120-108. The bout was terribly one-sided and probably should have been stopped by the 8th round, because the 35-year-old Albert took a really bad beating and was never even remotely competitive in the fight.
Baysangurov, 24, who is promoted by K2 East Promotions, the company owned by the Klitschko brothers, stood toe-to-toe with Albert for all 12 rounds of the fight, hammering him with nonstop punches at close range. Neither fighter showed much in the way of defense as they traded shots back and forth.
Albert faded badly by the 6th, and took a lot of unnecessary shots in the 2nd half of the fight when it was pretty much clear that he had no chance of winning the fight. Baysangurov, 24, ranked number #10 in the WBA and #14 in the WBC, seemed to never tire from punching as he just kept throwing and throwing. Albert might have saved himself a lot of punishment had he opted to use some movement, but he seemed incapable of moving more than a couple of feet in any direction without stopping and fighting it out.
In rounds one through six, Baysangurov stood straight up next to Albert firing off one punch after another to the head and body. Albert tried matching his work rate but was unable to and began to take a lot of punishment before long. Albert was cut on the side of his left eye in the 4th round, although the blood wasn’t really much of a problem.
What was the problem was that Albert was tiring out and getting hit an awful lot. The punches that Baysangurov was landing weren’t real big shots, but given the sheer number of punches that he was throwing, it was doing a number on Albert’s head and face, both of which began to swell up. The lack of defense from both fighters was frightening.
This looked like a fight out of the 50s, with two fighters just mauling each other. Albert fought well in the 6th and 7th, making both rounds close with his powers. However, following the 7th round, Baysangurov seemed to turn up extra gear and began to really batter Albert unceasingly for the next five rounds. The fight side of Albert’s head began to swell up by the 10th and his left eye was bleeding really badly.
Albert was only throwing a few token punches by this point and taking a lot of bad punishment. I’m not sure why the bout wasn’t stopped by his corner because he looked exhausted and beaten and wasn’t fighting back.
Overall, it was a good win for Baysangurov. He did what he’s got it namely throwing a lot of punches and wearing his opponent down. With his high work rate, stamina and youth, he’d give a lot of the top light middleweights in the division big problems.
That said, Baysangurov needs to work on his defense because he’s wide open for every shot thrown at him. Baysangurov doesn’t have much power, meaning that he’ll likely have to earn a good portion of his wins the hard way by grinding out a decision.
That unfortunately will lead to Baysangurov taking of punishment in the process of winning his fights and he may end up having his career shortened because of that. In his fight with Cornelius Bundrage in December 2008, Baysangurov was stopped in the 5th round after getting hit with two big right hands in a row from Bundrage that sent Baysangurov down.
The fight was stopped after Baysangurov staggered to his feet and was not in condition to keep fighting. At the time of the stoppage, Baysangurov was winning but he was tempting fate by standing directly in front of Bundrage and blocking punches with his face instead of his gloves. Bundrage showed that Baysangurov has a lot of work to do if he wants to contend for a title. Unfortunately, Baysangurov showed little improvement from that fight.