The vast and impressive Barys Arena in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan, was the setting for the latest MTK Fight Night Offering on Saturday night.
Nordine Oubaali successfully negotiated a first defence of the WBC Bantamweight Title, with an impressive sixth round stoppage of Arthur Villanueva.
The French Champion attacked with good footwork in the opening round, as well as landing with speedy combination punches. Filipino Villanueva had little pop in his punches to trouble Oubaali, and this was evident early on.
It was one way traffic, with Oubaali hitting and connecting with Villanueva almost at will, and the challenger simply couldn’t get anything of note to land on his opponent.
With Oubaali now in a rhythm, and connecting almost every time he threw a punch, he stepped up the pace in round six to bring the fight to it’s conclusion. It was a stunning left-right combination to the top of the head that felled Villanueva at the halfway mark of the round, and after surviving the referees count, Ouballi unleashed a further frenzied assault. The referee elected not to stop the contest, but Villanueva himself had had enough, electing to not come out for the seventh round, with his face a puffy mess.
An invitee to the show in Kazakhstan was WBO Super Middleweight Champion, Billy Joe Saunders, who took the opportunity to call out Gennady Golovkin for a contest in the same Barys Arena, immediately after Oubaali was interviewed by the broadcaster.
Golovkin was not in attendance in Kazakhstan, but Saunders was certainly keen to get the message across that he is available and willing to face “GGG”
The main event for the evening saw home favourite, Zhankosh Turarov move to 24-0, and he also picked up the WBO Intercontinental Super Lightweight Title, with a simple third round stoppage of the outgunned Argentine, Mauro Godoy.
Turarov’s punch power and picking was simply too much for Godoy, who was bullied around the ring by the local man.The early end seemed inevitable, and it came in the third, when a massive left hook from Turarov landed high on the temple of Godoy, scrambling his senses completely. Godoy’s legs were unsteady, and he failed to beat the count, sending the home crowd home happy.
Viktor Kotochigov was the first acquisition for MTK Global’s Kazakhstan operation, and the unbeaten Lightweight prospect had a tougher than expected ten round points win against Jairo Lopez.
Scores were 98-93, 99-93 and 99-91 for Kotochigov, in a largely forgettable affair.
Kotichigov was caught more than he expected, and the only real change in action was when Lopez was nicked above the eye in round eight. This proved a motivation for Kotochigov, who was able to turn the pressure up on his opponent. A right hand rocked Lopez in round nine, but that was as good as it got for the home hope, who had to go the ten round distance.
David Oliver Joyce continued his paid career with a dominant points win against Columbian, Breilor Teran. There were no knockdowns, but due to one point being docked for Teran for excessive holding, and a one sided contest, two of the rounds were scored 10-8. Scores of 100-89, 100-87 and 100-86 gave Joyce his eleventh professional victory.
