World Series Of Boxing Italy 3-2 USA Russo rules the roost

In an extraordinarily tight match in Italy, it required the intervention of the Heavyweight World Champion Clemente Russo to save the hosts blushes just a week after they celebrated their 100th home win. The landmark reminded us that the Italia Thunder are the only team to have maintained an unbeaten record at home across all four WSB seasons so far, but that almost changed tonight…

The Light Flyweights (46-49kg), Bantamweights (56kg), Light Welterweights (64kg), Middleweights (75kg) and Heavyweights (91kg) contested this match.

Bout of the match

Italia Thunder’s Mark Barriga and the USA Knockouts Lu Bin faced-off in an epic clash between two of the WSB’s hottest up-and-coming Light Flyweights. Bin possibly had the faster hands while Barriga definitely had the better movement. On certain occasions, Bin had his Filipino opponent in the corner and he off loaded some stunning combinations. Out in the open however and it was Barriga who was able to use the angles to score. After five excellent rounds, the two boxers embraced in a great sign of sportsmanship. It was Barriga who used his experience to win however, which takes him to 3-0 in the WSB, making him the number 2 ranked Light Flyweight.

Boxer of the match

Clemente Russo won standing applause for his job in rescuing the Italia Thunder’s evening. With the bout tied at 2-2 when he made his appearance, a win was critical. But Russo had a cool head. Living dangerously, and full of confidence, the Italian Heavyweight World Champion was determined to entertain the crowd regardless of the risk. This put him back to his show stopping best. Boxing with his hands down for the entire bout, Russo used his snake-like head movement and pivoting foot work to stay out of trouble. Because his feet are so static ordinarily, on those moments when he does need to take full evasive action, it is stunning to see just how much distance he can put between himself and his opponent at speed when he feels it is necessary. His opponent Joshua Temple boxed well but could not get near the great Italian across the full five rounds. It was another big win for Russo to bring him to 18-2 in the WSB and it gets him back on the winning path after having suffered two consecutive losses.

The turning point

Branimir Stankovic boxing for the Italia Thunder took on Carlos Adames of the Dominican Republic at Light Welterweight. Again the Italia Thunder boxer was interested in turning the bout into a scrap, whilst the 19 year old Knockouts boxer wanted to work at range. It was a storm of a match that could really have been the bout of the night, were it not for the fact that when it occurred, the match was poised at 1-1. Following Adames’ intervention however, the evening had swung dangerously in the favour of the USA Knockouts.

Quote of the match

“It’s almost Matrix-like the way he [Barriga] can bend his head back away from his body to avoid taking shots” – The WSB Commentator on Mark Barriga’s evasion skills.

Wrap up

Michele Crudetti of the Italia Thunder took on a very handy looking Steven Fulton. Fulton came into the bout with a record of 1-1 whilst the Italian was 0-1, meaning that they were fairly well matched. The American looked very stylish and liked to dance around his opponent. The Italian was a front foot boxer though, and whenever he got in close, he caused problems. In the end the American won it but not without difficulty.

Bogdan Juratoni was in a critical position for the Thunder when he fought fellow Middleweight Marlo Delgado Suarez. With the Italian outfit having only just celebrated their 100th home win last weekend, they were now trailing 2-1 to the USA Knockouts on home soil. If Delgado Suarez was to take this bout, a four year old tradition of remaining unbeaten in WSB matches would be over in a heartbeat. For a moment, in round two, it looked like that was very much on the cards, but the Romanian mercenary, who is boxing for the Thunder, was critical when it counted and outpointed his opponent to leave it in the hands of Clemente Russo. For a foreign boxer who was 0-1 coming into this bout, Juratoni showed everyone the way to guarantee you get a call back.

Coming up next

Both the Italia Thunder and (almost certainly) the USA Knockouts are now through to the Playoffs. Their exact opponent’s may be subject to some adjustment as there are still some matches in hand. But if things stay as they are, the USA will be facing the unbeaten Cuba Domadores, and the Italia Thunder will have a tough match against the ruthless Russian Boxing Team.

Catch up!

Don’t miss out on anything with our new service AIBAboxingTV.com! Highlights are provided with commentary shortly after each match so that you can keep up with the season as it unfolds.

World Series of Boxing Mexico 2-3 Russia Polyanskiy’s KO debut

With the Russian Boxing Team already through to the Playoffs, they chose to give some ring-time to three new boxers, all of whom impressed. None more so however than Dmitriy Polyanskiy who exploded into the World Series of Boxing (WSB) with a first round KO over experienced Mexican opponent Fernando Alvarez.

The Flyweights (52kg), Lightweights (60kg), Welterweights (69kg), Light Heavyweights (81kg) and Super Heavyweights (91+kg) contested this match.

Bout of the match
Elias Emigdio and Ovik Ogannsian put on an excellent show for boxing fans at Flyweight. In a very spirited performance, the debutant Russian did extremely well against the 2013 WSB Boxer of the Year. For a while in fact he was ahead in the scores. Emigdio had to dig really deep and draw on all of his experience to pull the bout back in the final round against the southpaw. Ogannsian looks like one for the future for the Russians, whilst Emigdio takes his WSB record to an impressive 17-3, which places him firmly in the ranks of the WSB’s top pound for pound performers of all time.

Boxer of the match
Lightweight Dmitriy Polyanskiy caused one of the upsets of the season when he KO’d the experienced Fernando Alvarez on his debut. Alvarez finished last season as the number eight ranked Lightweight and came into the bout with a 3-2 record. The Russian looked extremely confident as he walked out though. Alvarez started very brightly, landing multiple combinations on his opponent who hid behind his guard. The Mexican boxer threw close to forty punches in the opening minute, the Russian threw three. The third one was the first to connect and took the form of a vicious and perfectly timed uppercut to the body, which the Mexican walked right into. Such was the force of the blow that the Guerrero dropped to his knees, and there he remained for the full count and indeed for some time after. Thus just a minute into the contest and in possibly the most efficient piece of boxing we have ever seen on a punch to KO ratio, Polyanskiy introduced himself to the boxing world. Was it a flash in the pan, or can he repeat the performance? Only time will tell; but it will be worth tuning into AIBAboxingTV to find out.

The turning point
When Light Heavyweight Eduard Yakushev of Russia took on Petru Ciobanu of the Mexico Guerreros, the match was hanging by a thread at two wins to each team. However, the experienced Russian is just the sort of boxer a team wants to have in their line-up at such a moment. A three season veteran with a record of 6-2, Yakushev faced his Moldovan counterpart with confidence from the beginning and managed to secure a solid points victory. Ciobanu now slips to an uncomfortable 0-3 in the WSB.

Quote of the match
“We know how effective body shots can be, but that was a particularly painful one to take” – Our commentator on the Polyanskiy uppercut.

Wrap up
Star Mexican Boxer Marvin Cabrera got back to winning ways against 21 year old WSB debutant Alim Gadzhiev. In so doing he atoned for his only WSB loss to date which he suffered on his last outing. This brought his record to 8-2, giving him a current rank of 7th in the Welterweight Category.

Unfortunately there was a Walkover at Super Heavyweight with Gerardo Bisbal pulling out at the last minute to give the Russians an uncontested victory in that bout.

Coming up next
The Mexico Guerreros are now out of the competition for this year. The team has a long break until Season V starts in November to try to bring in reinforcements and launch a more effective campaign next year. Russia is through however; who their next opponent is remains unclear as they still have a match in hand but it looks likely to be either the Ukraine Otamans or the Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder.

Catch up!
Don’t miss out on anything with our new service AIBAboxingTV.com! Highlights are provided with commentary shortly after each match so that you can keep up with the season as it unfolds.

Cameroon book the second African World Championship ticket

2014 Women’s World championship- Day 7 Pool T

Cameroon Women’s volleyball team booked the second African ticket to the 2014 World championship in Italy after they won they won African Pool T qualifier held at Harcha Hacène Hall in Alger, Algeria on Saturday.

Tunisia picked up the first Africa ticket last week after they won Pool U in Kenya.

Cameroon ladies who were in rest on the final day, were waiting for the result of the decisive game between host Algeria and Egypt where the only result to qualify them was the Algerian victory and that was happened when they pulled off a five set victory 3-2 (23-25, 25-15, 19-25, 29-27, 15-10)

With this result Cameroon won the tournament with a win- loss ratio of 4-1 (13 points), while Egypt came second with the same ratio and 12 points. Algeria finished also 4-1 and came third with 11 points.

In the other final day match Botswana clinched a straight sets victory over DR Congo (25-15, 25-19, 25-21). Botswana finished the competition at the fourth position with 2-3 (6 points), while DR Congo dropped to 1-4 (3 points). Nigeria came at the sixth and last position with 0-5.

Day 7 Results Mar. 1

16.00: Botswana- DR Congo 3-0

18:15: Algeria- Egypt

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