By Alexey Sukachev, March, 1, 2007

Photos by Anatoly Boyko (“Gazeta po-Kievski”)

It’s not unusual to see Ukrainian fighters, ranked among the best in their weight classes. That is, however, not the case for the welterweight, which is thought by many to be the deepest and the most talented weight division nowadays. Or it, better to say, was the case until the very beginning of this week, which saw two of the best Ukrainian welters – Yuri Nuzhnenko and Victor Plotnikov – keep their perfect stats in tact via hard-fought decisions over a credible opposition. Both fighters made some huge steps towards the world-wide recognition and a possible title clash with one of the current beltholders in 147 lbs. On Tuesday unbeaten Nuzhnenko defeated his defense-minded foe Farkhad ‘Masa’ Bakirov in an awkward and dirty fight, while Plotnikov barely edged tough Marat Khuzeev via close but unanimous decision a day earlier.

Nuzhnenko survives Bakirov

Sports Palace, Kiev, Tuesday

A huge show, featuring a good number of young local prospects, was held in Ukrainian capital of Kiev on Tuesday, 27. The main event saw two experienced and still-to-be-beaten welterweights in a huge crossroad clash between WBA #9 Ukrainian Yuri Nuzhnenko (24-0, 13 KOs), 30, and WBA #10 Farkhad ‘Masa’ Bakirov (24-0-2, 15 KOs), 34, for Yuri’s WBA intercontinental title.

What on paper seemed to be a terrific fight with the only one career-survivor turned out to be a dirty and awkward contest since the very first round of the bout. The instigator was guest Uzbek, who added some unfair tricks to his arsenal and used a tremendous range of them during the whole fight. From round four Nuzhnenko had been fighting with the deep and gory cut over his left eyebrow. Despite that and his blood flowing, Ukrainian was able to control the pace through the whole distance, peppering his foe with wicked shots both to the body and head. However, physically strong and slick Bakirov not only survived through the fight but also made his foe mistaking, with his shots going widely off the target.

The Uzbek fighter was deducted two points for holding in rounds two and seven. At the end Nuzhnenko was awarded with the clear cut unanimous decision, though no exact scores were revealed. With his biggest victory to date Yuri is in the line for a title shot, but he needs more fights with such boxers as Bakirov and better work of cornermen as well. The Uzbek fighter suffers his first pro loss at 34 after 12 years of boxing. He seems to be finally off the title contention.    

In the semi-main bout of the evening light heavyweight Vyaczeslav Uzelkov (14-0, 7 KOs) scored the seventh-round TKO over durable journeyman Artem Vychkin (8-18, 2 KOs) of Chelyabinsk, Russia, and acquired the vacant EBU-EE title. Vychkin was taking the merciless beating throughout the fight, prompting referee to stop this one-sided contest.

In another notable fight Ukrainian heavyweight hope Alexey Mazikin (10-1, 2 KOs) easily outpointed tough journeyman Sedrick Fields (22-30-2, 16 KOs) over eight rounds. That was the first win for Mazikin, since he had dropped a majority decision to his compatriot Taras Bidenko last August. In another heavyweight contest Ukrainian Valuev-like giant Alexander Kabanov (215 cm) knocked out Anton Semenchenko (0-2) in his pro debut.

The show was promoted by National Box Promotions. Unfortunately, the beautiful show was spoiled considerably by the scandal with the ring legend Kostya Tszyu, who was visiting the show as the featured guest star of the evening. Having waited for half an hour to be announced on the post-fight presser, Tszyu quickly congratulated Nuzhnenko with the win, screwed the organizers and left the arena. He was quoted by local media saying, “That was totally unprofessional. The boxers were beautiful, the show was too, but the presser was extremely disastrous. These guys (announcers) seem to treat me as the little boy. That sucks!”.

Other results:

Vitaly Rusal (13-0, 8 KOs) UD 8 Ruslan Goncharov (5-2, 5 KOs)

Sergey Fedchenko (14-0, 5 KOs) UD 8 Alexey Yevchenko (4-2-1, 1 KO)

Valery Brazhnik (11-0, 6 KOs) UD 8 Sergey Starkov (16-41-2, 2 KOs)

Vadim Safonov (IBF #15 in 200lb., 19-2, 9 KOs) UD 8 Makhmud Atadzhanov (4-5, 3 KOs)

Rizvan Magomedov (3-3-1, 1 KO) TKO 3 Valentin Trostyanchuk (0-2)

Vasily Klyusa (4-0, 3 KO) PTS 4 Gennady Melnik (0-2)

Avtandil Khurtsidze (1-0, 1 KO) TKO 3 Sergey Petrik (0-1) – pro debut for both

Plotnikov edges Khuzeev

Sports Palace, Lvov, Monday

In another show, held in the western city of Lvov, local prospect Victor Plotnikov (17-0, 9 KOs), 29, scored his career-best victory in a brutal showdown with extremely tough Russian welterweight Marat Khuzeev (15-2-1, 6 KOs), 26. Despite a better record Plotnikov seemed to be a slight underdog prior the fight, as his foe faced some top-rated pugilists, including Reda Zam Zam (loss on points), Christian Bladt (win), Sergey Sorokin (draw) and Jozsef Matolcsi (win). Ukrainian, however, turned the tables around with the beautiful performance against his experienced rival, earning the hard-fought unanimous decision over twelve classy rounds. The scores were: 118-112 (twice), 116-112. With the win he is now IBF Eastern Europe and Central Asia welterweight titlist.

In the co-feature journeyman featherweight Gennady Delissandru (14-12-1, 5 KOs) captured EEBA title with the UD 10 (100-90, 100-91, 100-91) over Kakhaber Avetisyan (6-3, 1 KO). Local prospects Andrey Rudenko, Vasily Kondor, Kostya Rovensky and Maxim Pedyura were also successful in their fights.