Joshua destroys Bakhtov; Selby stops Brunker

By Boxing News - 10/11/2014 - Comments

joshua7By Scott Gilfoid: In a totally predictable outcome, Anthony Joshua (9-0, 9 KOs) destroyed 34-year-old journeyman Denis Bakhtov (38-10, 25 KOs) by a 2nd round knockout to capture the World Boxing Council International heavyweight title at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Joshua hurt the aging veteran Bakhtov with some single power shots while he was foolishly perched against the ropes.

Joshua then flurried on the bleeding Bakhtov until referee Ian John-Lewis halted the fight at 1:00 of the 2nd round. It looked like John-Lewis was going to halt it a little earlier because he jumped in between the two fighters when Bakhtov was trapped against the ropes and taking punishment, but the action was allowed to resume. Joshua then landed a left followed by a right hand. At that point Ian John-Lewis halted the fight.

The 5’11” Bakhtov was simply too short to land more than a few shots in the fight. You couldn’t learn anything from the fight due to Bakhtov being too short to land anything. He did connect with one big shot, but he was quickly countered by a right hand from Joshua. If this had been the 6’7″ Deontay Wilder in the ring with Joshua instead of a little old guy like Bakhtov, it would have been a much different story.

Bakhtov is a fighter who was recently stopped in 5 rounds by Manuel Char, so you have to put Joshua’s stoppage win in perspective.

“I just wanted to hurt him,” Joshua said after the fight. “Michael Sprott is the first of phase two. Eddie is the one that will move me through the world rankings.”

“He’s going to go through absolutely everybody in the heavyweight division and unify,” Eddie Hearn said. “He’s humble but I’m not going to be. Joshua vs. Price is a big, big fight.”

The crowd booed when Hearn mentioned Price as a future opponent for Joshua.

“Yeah, I’m ready for Joshua,” Price said. “It’s a dangerous fight for him. I know I’m capable of knocking Anthony Joshua out. I’m a much more capable opponent than Denis Bakhtov.I’d be a guy looking to take his head off.”

Joshua will next be facing 39-year-old journeyman Michael Sprott (42-22, 17 KOs) next month on November 22nd on the undercard of the Tony Bellew vs. Nathan Cleverly 2 fight card at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.

YouTube video

***

In a sick mismatch, #6 IBF Lee Selby (20-1, 8 KOs) easily defeated #3 IBF Joel Brunker (27-1, 15 KOs) by a 9th round TKO in their International Boxing Federation featherweight title eliminator.

The fight was halted at 2:49 of the round after Selby knocked Brunker down with a body shot. Selby had hurt Brunker earlier in the 9th round with a body shot. Once he had him hurt, Selby continued to nail Brunker with body shots.

With this win, Selby is now the mandatory challenger to IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich, who arguably is the weak link among the 5 featherweight champions a the moment. You have to rate Gradovich well behind the likes of Nonito Donaire, Vasyl Lomachenko, Nicholas Walters and Jhonny Gonzalez. It’s smart of Selby’s promoter Eddie Hearn to position him to fight Gradovich because he wouldn’t likely do well at all against any of those other champions, because they can actually punch.

YouTube video

Gradovich is going to be an awfully tough fighter for Selby to beat because Gradovich is a much bigger puncher than Brunker. The difference is like night and day. Brunker was just a slow guy with zero power that was given what I consider to be an inflated ranking by the IBF with them ranking him #3 based on nothing but empty wins over obscure opposition. I definitely didn’t rate Brunker as a No.3 type talent like the IBF did. When you see a guy like Brunker ranked above talented fighters like Abner Mares and Gary Russell Jr, it just makes you wonder what the IBF were thinking about when they came up with their upside down rankings.

“He’s [Selby] ready to become a world champion,” Hearn said after the fight. “I believe he’ll beat Gradovich, and I think we can do that by next Spring.”

I don’t see Selby beating Gradovich, no way. I see Gradovich knocking Selby out, as I do Mares, Russell Jr, Donaire, Lomachenko, Jhonny Gonzalez and Nicholas Walters. I rate all of those guys as much better than Selby.

YouTube video

Other boxing action on the card:

Tyler Goodjohn MD 10 Ricky Boylan
John Ryder TKO 5 Theophilus Tetteh



Comments are closed.