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On Saturday night at the Club
Sportlife in Kiev, Ukrainians
Vitaliy Kopylenko and Timur
Akhundov captured World Boxing
Federation Intercontinental
titles with stoppage victories
over Vasyl Tarabarov, also from
Ukraine, and Hungarian Arpad
Vass.
Kopylenko, based in Switzerland
and fighting in his native
country for the first time since
his professional debut four
years ago, won the vacant
Middleweight version when he
outworked Tarabarov for four
rounds, taking the initiative
and landing the heavier shots.
Before the fifth, Tarabarov´s
corner stopped the fight when
their fighter claimed to be
unable to continue due to the
affects of a liver-punch landed
in the final stages of the
fourth round, making the
official result a TKO in round
five.
With the victory Kopylenko won
his first professional
championship, and improved his
unbeaten record to 17-0 (8).
Tarabarov, a former IBF and WBC
regional belt-holder and
Ukrainian national champion,
lost for the first time and
dropped to 22-1-1 (8).
In
the second WBF title fight of
the show promoted by Oleg
Bruskov, Timur Akhundov also won
his first title in the pros as
he stopped Budapest’s Arpad Vass
in three rounds for the vacant
Featherweight strap. Both boxers
were active in the first two
rounds, but Akhundov had the
most success and the visitor
looked tired already at the end
of the second.
After three knockdowns in the
third round, referee Victor
Panin from Russia decided enough
was enough and declared Akhundov,
now 13-2-1 (5), the winner by
technical knockout. Arpad Vass
fell to 8-4 (6). |
