Eduard Troyanovsky vs Keita Obara results

By Boxing News - 09/09/2016 - Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMQrtp6s6jw

By Jim Dower: Making his second defense of his International Boxing Federation light welterweight title, champion Eduard Troyanovsky (25-0, 22 KOs) totally destroyed a badly overmatched #3 IBF challenger Keita Obara (16-2-1, 15 KOs) in the 2nd round on Friday night at the Krylia Sovetov in Moscow, Russia.

The 36-year-old Troyanovsky knocked Obara out of the ring with a flurry of power shots in the 2nd round. Somehow, Obara was able to get back into the ring to resume fighting. Once he did get back into the ring, Obara was immediately driven back to the ropes by Troyanovsky, who unloaded on him with a storm of punches that caused the referee to step in and stop the one-sided contest to save Obara. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:35 of the round.

Obara showed no punch resistance at all in the fight, as Troyanovsky was stunning him with left hand shots even in the 1st round. One got the sense that Troyanovsky could have ended in the fight in round one if he hadn’t been so cautious. He was treating Obara like he was a real threat to him, and he clearly wasn’t. Obara did land a right hand in the 1st round that knocked Troyanovsky off balance briefly. Other than that, it was a round that was totally one-sided with Troyanovsky landing head-snapping jabs and left hooks. Obara just bounced around on the balls of his feet without doing much.

The IBF needs to improve their rankings, because Obara looked like he didn’t belong in the same ring as Troyanovsky tonight. Of all the potential contenders that the IBF could have ranked for their No.3 spot in their organization, Obara would seem like the last guy that deserved that ranking. The IBF have three very good contenders ranked below Obara in #4 Rances Barthlemy,#5 Antonio Orozco and #9 Frankie Gomez. One of those guys should have been the contender that was challenging Troyanovsky tonight.

Troyanovsky looks like a very good fighter, but it’s impossible to know for sure until he gets inside the ring with a quality contender like one of the above mentioned contenders. In Troyanovsky’s last three fights, he’s beaten Obara and Cesar Rene Cuenca [x 2]. Troyanovsky would be a good opponent for the other top light welterweights like WBC/WBO 140lb champion Terence Crawford, Adrien Broner, Lamont Peterson, Ricky Burns or Viktor Postol.

In other boxing results on the card, unbeaten former 2008 Olympic gold medalist Rakhim Chakhkiev (26-2, 19 KOs) defeated a woefully over-matched journeyman Alejandro Emilio Valori (21-11, 15 KOs) by a 2nd round stoppage in cruiserweight action. For the 33-year-old Chakhkiev, he picked up his second consecutive win since being stopped by Ola Afolabi in the 5th round last year in November 2015. Chakhkiev is a good fighter, but he’s struggled in the chin department when facing better fighters in the division. Chakhkiev was stopped in the 8th round three years ago by former World Boxing Council cruiserweight champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk in June 2013. Chakhkiev won eight consecutive fights over weak opposition after that loss before getting beaten by Afolabi last year.

Unbeaten cruiserweight Alexey Papin (4-0, 3 KOs) prospect defeated Jorge Oliveira Rodriguez (28-14, 14 KOs) by a 1st round knockout.