 Avtandil Khurtsidze vs Jamel Bahki |
Khurtsidze started in his usual aggressive manner pressing his opponent on every square inch of the ring. Much taller Bahki, however, could not establish his jab and absorbed quite a lot of punches helplessly trying to counterpunch. In round 3 Khurtsidze intensified his ferocious attacks using a lot of combinations which landed more and more often on both head and body of the Belgian. At the end of round 3 Avtandil sent Bahki to the canvas but did not manage to stop him since the bell saved the Belgian.
Persistent pressure from Ukrainian based Georgian in round 4 quickly wore down Bahki who in round 5 absorbed punches for about a minute without any attempt of counteroffensive.
Finally Bahki and his corner decided that he had had enough and the Belgian quitted on his stool after round 5.
In the co-event of «Champions’ Summer» fight card Romanian fighter Istvan Varga (14-8, 5 KOs) appeared to be no match for Vyacheslav Uzelkov (21-0, 13 KOs). Uzelkov, WBA Inter-Continental light heavyweight champ clashed against Varga in a tune-up ten-rounder. Uzelkov showed that in spite of 8 months interval in fighting he did not develop any signs of ring-rust. Practically his first power punch – a devastating left hook sent Varga to the canvas.
Romanian fighter stood up and tried to continue but soon a huge right made him to take a knee. He stood up to the count but the ref mercifully stopped the lopsided beating. Now Uzelkov eagerly waits for the results of the negotiations between his team and managers of Gabriel Campillo – Vyacheslav is a mandatory challenger for WBA World light heavyweight title which now decorates waist of Spaniard Gabriel Campillo.
UNDERCARD RESULTS:
Nikita Lukin TKO2 Aleksey Pinchuk
Yuri Voronin TKO2 Khasan Vishnyakov
Alexander Benidze W(UD)6 Mikhail Vinnichenko
Nikolay Israelyan KO1 Vasilyi Chernykh
Valery Brazhnik TKO7 Denis Tupilenko
Ali Adams W(SD)4 Vyacheslav Sherbakov
Siarhei Rabchanko TKO3 Boris Akopov
«Champions’ Summer» at the scales
