Paris United tonight became the first team to secure their qualification for the WSB play-offs after they beat the Moscow Kremlin Bears 4-0 at home and their closest rivals, Dolce & Gabbana Milano Thunder, succumbed 2-3 away to the Istanbulls. With two bouts already decided in favour of the home team after two Moscow Kremlin boxers failed to make yesterday’s weigh-in things looked good for Brahim Asloum’s team on their final home match of the season at the Palais de Sports Marcel Cerdan tonight.
After the bantamweight contest was declared a walkover for Giorgi Kilanava (Georgia), the lightweight contest between number two ranked Rachid Azzedine (France) of the home team and the visitors’ Adlan Abdurashidov (Russia) ended in a rare technical draw after the bout was stopped in the first round.
The middleweight contest opposed the spectacular Michel Tavares of Paris United to Yusup Magomedbekov of the Bears. As always in Paris, Tavares was highly supported by the crowd. The Frenchman seemed at ease as he handled the contest very well. He seemed able to speed up whenever he wanted and proved it twice during the last thirty seconds of the first round with two fast combinations to the body and head of his rival. He continued on the same path in the next round with a special mix of nonchalance and energy. Pressured by his coach, Tavares focused on boxing and in the fourth round, he threw a nice jab to Magomedbekov’s head, provoking a standing count. After that, there was nothing to separate Tavares from his third victory of the season and the 22-year-old southpaw won the bout by unanimous decision: 49-45, 50-44, 50-44.
Ludovic Groguhe (France) enjoyed a walkover in the light heavyweight contest due to the forfeit of opponent Zhavlonbek Usmanov. Groguhe remains second in the individual rankings. “This victory is very pleasant, for myself and for the team, but I would have preferred to fight with all my mates tonight,” he said after his win.
The rather strange evening ended with a fight between two youngsters: 18-year-old Tony Yoka (France) for Paris United and 19-year-old Sherip Daudov (Russia) of the Moscow Kremlin Bears. As always, Yoka enjoyed a tremendous height advantage and appeared stronger than Daudov. But the Russian fought with a respectful motivation. This led him to endanger the Frenchman a few times. But Yoka was probably just too tall tonight and was the only real bear to see in Paris. He won by split decision 49-46, 49-46, 47-48 and climbed to seventh in the individual standings.
The 4-0 victory puts Paris United five points ahead of Dolce & Gabbana Milano Thunder in the European conference after the Italians lost 2-3 away to the Istanbulls tonight. Paris United therefore travel to Milan for their final match with an insurmountable lead and will be in the draw for the semi-final places on March 21.
Milan’s performance started routinely enough with a clear win for Vitaliy Volkov (Ukraine) in the bantamweight opener. But then the shock of the evening came when an in-form David Oliver Joyce (Ireland) of the Istanbulls became the first boxer to beat World Champion Domenico Valentino this season after the lightweight contest was stopped in the third round.
Sergiy Derevyanchenko (Ukraine) then replied for the visitors in the middleweight contest with a technical knock-out in the third round against Onur Sipal, elevating himself to the top spot in the individual ranking.
The home side’s Enrico Kolling (Germany) edged ahead to a close victory over Ireland’s Tommy McCarthy in the light heavyweight match-up, which was only the second bout of the night to go the full distance. Kolling’s win puts him sixth in the individual ranking.
Oleksiy Sivko made it a hat-trick for Ukraine’s boxers as the Istanbulls’ heavyweight closed out the evening’s action with a clear win against Benjey Zimmerman of Milano Thunder. Sivko came out with a relentless stream of combinations that had a visible impact on his heavier opponent and was reflected in the final score of 50-45, 49-46, 50-44.
Dolce & Gabbana Milano Thunder are now left with a mountain to climb to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the play-offs as the best second placed team overall.
