Russian "Hawk" Khabib Allakhverdiev (-) made the first defense of his WBA Light Welterweight as he traveled to Monaco and defeated Frenchman Souleymane M'baye (-), a former world champion himself.
The bout was a really slow starter with both men spending almost the entirety of the opening round standing off each other waiting for the other man to open up. The same occured at the start of the second round until Khabib took the initiative late on and actually dropped M'baye with almost the first really concentrated attack.
Unfortunately rather than building on the success of the second round Allakhverdiev seemed happy to stand off in the following rounds as both men again waited for the other to make the first move. This actually seemed to favour M'baye who, despite being 38, still possess very good hand speed and he was able to land single eye catching shots on Allakhverdiev.
It wasn't until the the end of round 5 that the Russian really seemed to pick up the pace again, when he did he looked a level above the Frenchman who was forced to take shots on the ropes as the crowd finally came to life. It appeared that Allakhverdiev had an extra gear he go in to at any time time, though unfortunately he kept stalling after showing flashes of exciting action.
Allakhverdiev scored his second knockdown in round 8 as he again went on the offensive and sustained an attack. It appeared the end was nigh for M'baye but after getting back to his feet the Frenchman really took it to champion and let loose with a fantastic flurry. Unfortunately for M'baye he lacked the power needed to ever really hurt the Russian who is genuinely a guy.
Having seen M'baye fight back well from the knock down the Russian "Hawk" was in no mood to let the Frenchman establish himself in the bout and instead went on the hurt hurting the challenger in round 10 before launching a serious attack in round 11 that finally forced the referee to step in.
With this victory Allakhverdiev has further enhanced his reputation as a top Light Welterweight. The performance wasn't great but he did become the first man to genuinely stop M'baye (who's previous stoppage loss came due to a leg injury).
Personally I'd like that to be the end of M'baye and I'd then like to see Allakhverdiev facing a fellow top fighter, maybe someone like Zab Judah, next time out.
Showing posts with label Khabib Allakhverdiev. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Khabib Allakhverdiev. Show all posts
Saturday, 13 July 2013
Friday, 30 November 2012
Khabib Allakhverdiev v Joan Guzman
Unbeaten Russian Khabib Allakhverdiev (18-0, 8) impressively claimed the WBA Light Welterweight title as he inflicted the first loss on to Domican Joan Guzman (33-1-1-1, 20) thanks to an 8th round technical decision in a bout marred by a number of blown calls by referee Luis Pabon.
The fight started well with a very fun opening round that saw Guzman sent to the canvas in what was ruled a slip though clearly came from a punch as Pabon made his first botched call of the night. Other than the "knockdown" the round was thoroughly fun to watch as both men went at each other. Thankfully the following round continued in a similar manner with both men tagging each other with solid shots.
Allakhverdiev proved to have the power to hurt Guzman again in the third round as he sent the Dominican down, this time with the shot being counted by the referee as the Russian claimed a 10-8 round. Guzman fought back well the following round and used his feet to stay out of danger for most of the round before both men tried tearing lumps off each other in the final 30 seconds. Sadly for Guzman his momentum was ended quickly with the Domican again knocked down, as Pabon botched yet another call in favour of the Dominican. Although Pabon missed the clear knockdown, he couldn't help Guzman's face, which ended up getting tagged with a shot that appeared to really mess up Guzman's nose.
After 5 rounds it was looking like a bout that was going to go Allakhverdiev's way, though Guzman then decided to use his brain and instead of going toe-to-toe with the Russian he instead decided to box and move. When Guzman was moving he was making Allakhverdiev look slow and plodding and this allowed Guzman to claim both the 6th and 7th round very easily. It was now that I was asking myself why had Guzman not started the fight like this, though though the answer was obvious, he's 36 and he can't do that for 12 rounds.
Controversy again reared it's ugly head in round 8 as Guzman, still boxing on his toes fell over, twisting his knee in the process. After a time out, the referee allowed Guzman to go on and Allakhverdiev went straight after his man who was now a stationary target. It didn't take long for Allakhverdiev to have Guzman in real trouble and then Guzman went down again, this time a clear push as Allakhverdiev went in for the kill. This time Guzman was unable to continue forcing the referee to end the bout with some viewers (especially those watching on TV) assuming that Guzman was wanting out of the fight considering the energy he had been using by boxing on his toes.
Surprisingly despite arguably scoring 3 knockdowns, and only losing 3 of the 8 rounds Allakhverdiev only managed to scrape a close split decision over Guzman with all 3 cards reading 76-75 (2 in favour of the Russian). A series of cards that were as mystifying as the performance of Pabon, who not only missed the knockdowns but also warned Allakhverdiev about anything and everything, splitting the fighters when it favoured Guzman and really started to get in Allakhverdiev's head. Sorry Luis but it's time to walk away after this dreadful performance.
The fight started well with a very fun opening round that saw Guzman sent to the canvas in what was ruled a slip though clearly came from a punch as Pabon made his first botched call of the night. Other than the "knockdown" the round was thoroughly fun to watch as both men went at each other. Thankfully the following round continued in a similar manner with both men tagging each other with solid shots.
Allakhverdiev proved to have the power to hurt Guzman again in the third round as he sent the Dominican down, this time with the shot being counted by the referee as the Russian claimed a 10-8 round. Guzman fought back well the following round and used his feet to stay out of danger for most of the round before both men tried tearing lumps off each other in the final 30 seconds. Sadly for Guzman his momentum was ended quickly with the Domican again knocked down, as Pabon botched yet another call in favour of the Dominican. Although Pabon missed the clear knockdown, he couldn't help Guzman's face, which ended up getting tagged with a shot that appeared to really mess up Guzman's nose.
After 5 rounds it was looking like a bout that was going to go Allakhverdiev's way, though Guzman then decided to use his brain and instead of going toe-to-toe with the Russian he instead decided to box and move. When Guzman was moving he was making Allakhverdiev look slow and plodding and this allowed Guzman to claim both the 6th and 7th round very easily. It was now that I was asking myself why had Guzman not started the fight like this, though though the answer was obvious, he's 36 and he can't do that for 12 rounds.
Controversy again reared it's ugly head in round 8 as Guzman, still boxing on his toes fell over, twisting his knee in the process. After a time out, the referee allowed Guzman to go on and Allakhverdiev went straight after his man who was now a stationary target. It didn't take long for Allakhverdiev to have Guzman in real trouble and then Guzman went down again, this time a clear push as Allakhverdiev went in for the kill. This time Guzman was unable to continue forcing the referee to end the bout with some viewers (especially those watching on TV) assuming that Guzman was wanting out of the fight considering the energy he had been using by boxing on his toes.
Surprisingly despite arguably scoring 3 knockdowns, and only losing 3 of the 8 rounds Allakhverdiev only managed to scrape a close split decision over Guzman with all 3 cards reading 76-75 (2 in favour of the Russian). A series of cards that were as mystifying as the performance of Pabon, who not only missed the knockdowns but also warned Allakhverdiev about anything and everything, splitting the fighters when it favoured Guzman and really started to get in Allakhverdiev's head. Sorry Luis but it's time to walk away after this dreadful performance.
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