By Sean McDaniel: In looking at the ending of last Saturday’s IBF heavyweight eliminator bout between previously unbeaten contender Alexander Ustinov (27-1, 21 KO’s) and Kubrat Pulev (17-0, 9 KO’s) in Hamburg, Germany, it sure looked to me that the 6’7 1/2″ Ustinov flat out quit in the 11th round when he went down in a delayed reaction from two soft looking left hands that Pulev hit Ustinov with. I didn’t really understand it because the shots weren’t big, yet Ustinov was on one knee and failed to get up from the knockdown.

If Ustinov did quit, I kind of don’t blame him because the 6’4 1/2″ Pulev really gave him a beating for 11 rounds with his hard jabs to the face. Ustinov’s nose was bloody from the 2nd round, his face was red from the jabs that he was eating, and he had a cut over his left eye from the midpoint of the fight. What should have happened is Ustinov’s corner should have pulled the plug on the fight after the 9th round when it become clear that Ustinov didn’t have a chance to win the fight.

Ustinov was able to land one or two big shots from the 5th round to the 8th, but from there on he was just taking hard jabs to the head over and over again. I haven’t seen a jab like Pulev’s since Lennox Lewis retired. Pulev’s jabs are like power punches. He really puts his body behinds those shots. But the weird thing is he can’t punch. As huge as he is you’d think that Pulev would have massive power, but he clearly doesn’t.

His right hand shots look incredibly weak, and left hooks are no better. Pulev basically beat Ustinov down by jabbing him in the head 40 to 50 times each round with a high degree of accuracy. Ustinov’s mouth area looked inflamed from all the jabs that hit him there. Eventually, Ustinov’s entire face was as red as his mouth area. I still understand why Ustinov’s team didn’t pull him out of there early to save him from taking a beating.