By Nate Anderson: European Boxing Union (EBU) featherweight champion Oleg Yefimovych (17-1, 11 KO’s) made easy work of former British and EBU super bantamweight champion Esham Pickering (34-9, 13 KO’s), knocking him down three times and stopping him in the 3rd round on Saturday night at the Sportpalace Drusba, in Donetsk, Ukraine.
Yefimovych, 27, knocked the 33-year-old Pickering down two times at the end of the 2nd round. At the start of the 3rd round, Yefimovych nailed Pickering with a big left hand that sent Pickering down by the ropes.
A badly hurt Pickering pulled himself up by grabbing the ropes, but referee Jean-Louis Legland decided he’d seen enough and stopped the bout at 1:01 of the round. For Pickering, it was his 4th loss in his last six fights.
Pickering fought reasonably well in the 1st round, landing jabs and right hands to the head of Yefimovych. Pickering seemed to have Yefimovych slightly confused with his attacks, which seemed unorthodox because Picking would charge at Yefimovych trying to land shots while on the run. However, near the end of the round, Yefimovych seemed to have figured out Pickering’s wild attacking style and began to pick him off when Pickering would come dashing forward.
On one occasion near the end of the round, Yefimovych landed a punch to the back of Pickering after the British fighter came wildly rushing at him. Yefimovych side stepped Picking, and then hit him with a shot to the back as Pickering went running by.
It looked slightly comical, like a professional fighter going up against an amateur. Pickering’s unorthodox style may have served him through much of his boxing career against certain fighters, but it wasn’t going to work against Yefimovych on Saturday night.
In the 2nd round, Yefimovych began to counter Pickering more and more when Pickering would come flying forward throwing shots. At one point, Yefimovych landed a left hand followed by two whipping right hooks that didn’t travel more than a foot before landing. The shots were hard and hit Pickering cleanly. This seemed to shut Pickering down offensively, as the rest of the round, Yefimovych battered Pickering at will, hitting him hard with single shots to the head.
Pickering landed a couple of harmless jabs, which seemed to get Yefimovych’s attention, because the Ukrainian then came rushing at Pickering and nailed him with a big left hook that sent Pickering down. He then got up and was immediately put down by a hard left-right combination from Yefimovych that sent Pickering down for the second time in the round.
While falling, the back of Pickering’s head hit the bottom ropes. The bell sounded ending the round after Pickering made it back to his feet. It’s doubtful he would have made it out of the round had there been another 10 to 15 seconds left because he looked like he would crumble if hit by anything by this point in the fight.
At the start of the 3rd, Pickering wildly missed a couple of right hands by a mile. Yefimovych then calmly stalked Pickering around the ring. He then caught up to Pickering by the ropes and blasted him first with a hard right and then a big left hook that snapped Pickering’s head back, dropping him to the canvas on his back. The bout was then stopped at 1:01 by referee Jean-Louis Legland after Pickering pulled himself back to his feet.
With this loss, Pickering is going to need to make a big decision about his career. He might be able to make a go of it if he could lose some weight and fight at bantamweight, but I have my doubts he can have much success at super bantamweight or featherweight.