By Craig Daly: Former IBF/WBA cruiserweight champion Murat Gassiev (30-1, 23 KOs) picked up his 30th career victory against a former NFL player Mike Balogun (20-1, 16 KOs) to capture the vacant WBA Inter-Continental heavyweight title on Friday night at the Karen Demirchyan Sports Complex, in Yerevan, Armenia.
The 29-year-old Gassiev was very patient in the opening round, throwing only three half-hearted punches as he slowly followed the 39-year-old Balogun around the ring.
At the midpoint of round round two, Gassiev nailed Balogun with a crushing right hand to the head that sent him down face-first on the canvas. The badly hurt Balogun showed signs of wanting to get up, but he was unable to beat the referee’s count, and the fight was halted.
It looked like Balogun might have lost his mouthpiece and appeared to be trying to pick it up. It’s a good thing that he didn’t get back up because Gassiev likely would have poleaxed him with another right hand to the head, and that would have been bad.
Interestingly, as soon as the referee waved it off, Balogun sprang to his feet and seemed steady and unhurt. His recovery was quick compared to how hurt he looked when has down on the canvas.
The victory for Gassiev was only his fourth in the last five years since his loss to Oleksandr Usyk in their undisputed cruiserweight clash in 2018.
Gassiev hasn’t taken advantage of his career the way he should have because he likely already would have gotten a world title shot at heavyweight if he’d fought three or four times a year instead of just four times in total in five years. That’s much too inactive for a fighter of Gassiev’s power and ability.
One negative that jumped out at this writer was how low Gassiev’s work rate was. There was no improvement from his low punch output that had plagued him against Usyk and in many of his other fights at cruiserweight. In the first round, Gassiev literally only threw three shots, and it’s troubling. He was too patient.
In the second round, Gassiev didn’t throw anything until the midpoint of the round, and that’s when he knocked Balogun out. If Gassiev is going to work his way into a title shot at heavyweight, he’s going to have to throw a lot more punches to beat the contenders. The top heavyweights will take advantage of Gassiev’s low work rate by outboxing him and not letting him get close.
