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Zaurbek Baysangurov © K2 East Promotions

WBA Inter-Continental light middleweight champion Zaurbek Baysangurov (23-1, 17 KOs) retained his title by fifth round TKO against Frank Shabani (18-2-0, 6 ÊÎs) on Saturday night at the Sport Palace «Yunost» in Zaporizhia, Ukraine.

Zaurbek Baysangurov vs. Frank Shabani title bout headlined huge boxing fight card billed «World Boxing in Zaporizhia. Champions league» held by «K2 East Promotions» promotional company of Klitschko brothers in this Ukrainian city in the southeast of Ukraine.

Shabani suffered a left hand injury and after he complained to ref about it for the second time during the break before round 6 the third man in the ring waved the bout off declaring Baysangurov the winner.

Starting from the beginning of round 1 Baysangurov was the aggressor being a bigger man in the squared circle. However, Shabani won the first stanza due to several fast combinations which he managed to throw at his rival while counterpunching. In round 2 Baysangurov started using his left hand more often which quickly resulted in several good punches which accurately landed mainly on contender’s head.

Shabani after having felt his opponent’s punching power decreased his counter attacks to some extent; however, he had his good moments in the round too.

In round 3 Zaurbek was even more dominating and after the round Shabani complained to his corner that he had just injured his left hand.

During next two rounds Baysangurov effectively utilized his jab which he from time to time combined with huge left hooks and completely overpowered Shabani who could not use his left hand 100% due to pain in it.

Zaurbek Baysangurov vs Frank Shabani © K2 East Promotions

During the break between rounds 5 and 6 the German fighter complained about his injury again and referee Jose Ignacio Martinez stopped the bout.

Now Baysangurov is ranked #3 by WBA and his recent win over Shabani most probably will fructify in giving him the right to fight in an eliminator; the winner of which gets a shot at the WBA I/C light middleweight title.


In the co-event unbeaten Ukrainian light middleweight Dmitrij Nikulin (20-0-0, 7 ÊÎs) celebrated the biggest win in his boxing career so far when he stopped tough Uzbek fighter Abdulaziz Matazimov (10-4-0, 4 ÊÎs) in round 3.

Nikulin was furiously supported by hundreds of his fans from his home town Melitopol situated not far from Zaporizhia.

Dmitrij Nikulin vs Abdulaziz Matazimov © K2 East Promotions

Nikulin was a smarter and faster fighter during fist two rounds throwing good combinations which, however, lacked power to some extent. Nothing pointed to early stoppage since Matazimov demonstrated good skills in defense and ability to counterpunch. It looked like the fighters would go the distance. However, in round 3 Nikulin after several accurate but light blows to his opponent’s head all over sudden landed a perfect blistering left to the liver. Matazimov folded in two and sank to the canvas, his face wried in pain. He was unable to beat the referee's count, and thus 25-year old Dmitrij Nikulin won vacant WBO European light middleweight – the fist belt in his pro career.


UNDERCARD RESULTS

Vitaliy Rusal RTD 3 Abror Oripov
Sergey Fedchenko W(UD)8 Sherzodbek Mamajanov
Andrey Rudenko TKO3 Avaz Rustamov
Salambek Baysangurov W(UD)4 Nikolay Korenev
Alexander Spirko TKO2 Alexander Nosikov
Vitaly Nevesely TKO3 Sergey Shitikov
Alexey Bondarenko KO1 Arsen Babayan
Vyacheslav Glazkov RTD1 Stas Belokon