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Ukrainian stars Vitaliy
Kopylenko and Timur Akhundov
delighted their fans on Saturday
night at the Club Sportlife in
Kiev, putting on impressive
performances in World Boxing
Federation title fights.
Kopylenko won the vacant World
Middleweight title, while
Akhundov retained his
Intercontinental Featherweight
crown.
Undefeated Kopylenko dominated
Portuguese Champion Vitor Sa
with excellent boxing, and never
let his experienced opponent
into the bout.
In the first two rounds he kept
Sa at bay and delivered his own
shots with accuracy and
determination, and in the third
he went for the finish and
delivered a perfect left hook to
the liver that send Sa to the
canvas for the full count.
It was a magnificent display of
skills and power from Kopylenko,
who joins Vitali and Wladimir
Klitschko as Ukraine’s only
reigning world champions and
improved his record to 18-0 (9).
Sa, who had lost on points in
two previous world title
challenges, returns to Portugal
with a 27-8 (5) ledger.
Timur Akhundov made a successful
first defense of his WBF
Intercontinental Featherweight
title with a clear, but
competitive, unanimous decision
over game French challenger
Leonus Marie Francoise. Akhundov
boxed well from the outside as
well as on the inside and mostly
controlled the action, but
Francoise always tried to get
the upper hand and made it and
entertaining affair.
Akhundov was clearly the better
technician of the two, and
fought a smart fight from the
start. Francoise didn’t have the
tools to seriously threaten the
champion, but he never looked
like a man resigned to just
going the distance. However, in
the tenth round it did look like
Akhundov would finish him as the
Ukrainian floored Francoise with
a beautiful body-shot, but
Francoise beat the count and
eventually made it to the final
bell.
Judges Jean Marcel Nartz, Olena
Pobyvailo and Oleg Kuderov
scored the bout 117-110, 116-111
and 119-108 respectively.
Akhundov, who could be in line
to fight for the WBF World title
in the near future, is now
14-2-1 (5) in the professional
ranks, while Francoise dropped
to 8-7-1 (2).
The show was promoted by Oleg
Bruskov, who for the second time
this year put on a great WBF
title double-header. |
