By Jim Dower: WBC Silver cruiserweight champion Dmitry Kudryashov (21-1, 21 KOs) destroyed #2 WBC Olanrewaju Durodola (25-4, 23 KOs) by a 5th round knockout on Saturday night at the Sports Palace, in Rostov-na-Donu, Russia. Kudryashov, knocked Durodola down in the 5th round with a left hook.
Moments later, Kudryashov tagged Durodola with a big left hook that send him flying backwards against the ropes. Referee Guadalupe Garcia then stepped in and halted the fight. Durodola probably could have continued to fight, but he looked hurt enough to have the fight halted. Durodola was also knocked down in rounds 3 and 4 from hard left hooks from Kudryashov.
The fight started off with Durodola hitting Kudryashov at will with punches in the first two rounds It was just like their previous encounter two years ago. Durodola didn’t throw nonstop punches otherwise he would have knocked out Kudryashov once again. The Russian has no defense at all, and he’s so slow. Durodola was hitting Kudryashov with 10-12 punches for every punch he would land. These weren’t the light variety of punches.
Durodola was putting everything he had into the shots and connecting cleanly to the head of Kudryashov. It was surprising that Kudryashov was able to take the heavy bombardment from the Nigerian fighter in round 1, because he took punches that would knock out most fighters. Durodola looked spectacular in the round. It’s not that he’s a great fighter. It was more of a case of Kudryashov being so poor with his defensive skills. He literally blocked nothing that Durodola was throwing at him. The shots that Durodola were throwing were being blocked by the face of Kudryashov.
Things looked bleak for Kudryashov going into the 2nd round. His face was already red, and he looked like he didn’t belong in the same ring with Durodola. You could see that Kudryashov had punching power, but was taking too many head shots for him to get his punches off. Durodola had a heavy bag with arms in front of him and he was taking full advantage of it. The punishment continued into round 2 with Durodola unloading on a helpless looking Kudryashov.
At this point in the fight, the only thing you could hope for if you were Kudryashov fan is Durodola punching himself out from hitting Kudryashov to the head. There was nothing that was being thrown back by the Russian fighter that was going to keep Durodola from unloading on him. However, late in the round, Kudryashov hurt Durodola with 4 big shots that shook him up and sent him to the ropes. Luckily or Durodola, the round ended before Kudryashov could finish him off. Durdola looked ready to be knocked out. The only thing that saved him was the bell sounding to end the round.
The 34-year-old Russian Kudryashov knocked Durodola down late in Kudryashov round 3 with a left hook to the jaw. Durodola got back to his feet, and took heavy punishment in the remaining seconds of the round. Durodola was fortunate to make it out of the round, because he was very hurt from the big shots he’d eaten. Durodola was getting the better of the very slow-handed Kudryashov in rounds in rounds 1 and 2. However, late in the 2nd round, Kudryashov caught Durodola with a left-right combination to the head that badly hurt him, sending him against the ropes.
Kudryashov then nailed Durodola with some good shots as the round had ended. The whole complexion of the fight turned round at that point, a Durodola was no longer able to dominate the slow-footed, slow handed Kudryashov. It was the Russian who began to get the better of the action. However, Durodola was still able to beat Kudryashov to the punch and land a lot of shots in the 3rd and 4th rounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfjNfohUJkU
The victory for Kudryashov enables him to avenge his 2nd round knockout loss to Durodola back on November 4, 2015. Like tonight, Durodola used his superior hand speed to flurry on the slower Kudryashov to get the better of him. The difference between that performance and tonight’s fight was Durodola didn’t empty his gas tank throwing nonstop punches like he’d done in his 2015 fight.
The victory for Kudryashov puts him in position to challenger World Boxing Council cruiserweight champion Mairis Briedis for his title. That’s a terrible match-up for Kudryashov. Briedis has a lot more boxing skill, speed and talent than Kudryashov. It’s good that Kudryashov will get a title shot against Briedis, but I don’t think it’s going to end well for him. Briedis is on another level when it comes to his boxing ability.
It would be better for Kudryashov to challenge IBF champion Murat Gassiev or WBA champions Beibut Shumenov or Denis Lebedev. Those guys seem more vulnerable to someone like Kudryashov than Briedis, who might be the best fighter in the cruiserweight division at this point. I don’t think Kudryashov can beat any of those fighters, but I would give him a better chance them than Briedis. Oleksandr Usyk would likely box circles around Kudryashov and makes him look really bad. That’s another guy I think Kudryashov should avoid if he knows what’s good for him.
Briedis and Kudryashov share something in common now with both of them having stopped Durodola in the 9th round. Briedis did a much better job of defeating Durodola than Kudryashov in May of 2016. Briedis wasn’t hit that much by Durodola. In contrast, Kudryashov took a lot of shots tonight and wound up with a red face a swollen nose.