«Big Boxing» in Zaporizhzhja: Rusal defeats Nagy, retains title; Nuzhnenko returns with a win
IBO Inter-Continental cruiserweight champion Vitaliy Rusal (23-0, 16 KOs) retained his title with a twelve round unanimous decision over tough Hungarian Jozsef Nagy (20-3, 12 KOs) on Saturday night at Yunost Sport Palace in Zaporizhzhja where «K2 East Promotions» held «Big Boxing» tournament. It was the 10th and the last boxing event organized by «K2 East» in Ukraine this year.
Rusal pressed the action and outworked Nagy most the way. However, Hungarian appeared to be a tough opponent able to counterpunch with dangerous power shots. As early as in round one he managed to land several of them. In round 5 the bout turned to a toe-to-toe battle. Rusal was more impressive in the final rounds and in some moments close to early stoppage but Nagy withstood all assaults. Scores were 119-109, 118-110 and 118-111 for Rusal.
In the co-main event undefeated Yuri Nuzhnenko (28-0-1, 13 KOs), WBA welterweight champion faced Ikbal Kurbanov (8-3, 3 KOs) from Uzbekistan in a non-title ten-rounder. Nuzhnenko fought for the first time after an eight-month absence from the ring caused by injury. The champ effectively used his jab landing also occasional right and left hooks. In round 4 unintentional headbutt cut Nuzhnenko on the head. However, the Ukrainian increased his workrate even more although Kurbanov was still dangerously counterpunching from time to time. Starting from round 7 Nuzhnenko dominated in the ring and landed more punches and finally took a unanimous decision.
UNDERCARD RESULTS
Roman Kharkov TKO4 Dmitri Ratoshnyuk
Artem Aivazidi W(UD)12 Rakhim Mingaliev
Valentin Golovko TKO3 Vitaliy Charkin
Alec Murtazaliev D(PTS) Vladimir Borovskyi
Alexander Spirko TKO1 Roman Grygoryan
Mamed Yadgarov TKO1 Khasan Umarov
Nikolai Ratoshnyuk W(UD)12 Alexei Stefnyuk
Rusal, Nagy make weight
