Week nine of the World Series of Boxing 2010-2011 season starts with the customary European bouts on Friday night, including a continuation of the battle for supremacy between Paris United and Dolce & Gabbana Milano Thunder. The light heavyweight contest in Paris promises to be one of the higlights of the evening – if not the weekend – as the number one and number three ranked boxers go head-to-head for the first time.
Paris United welcome the Istanbulls to a new venue, the Palais des Sports Marcel Cerdan, in Levallois-Perret, in the north-west suburbs of Paris. The Istanbulls are travelling with a squad that consists entirely of foreign boxers, including their most recent signing – and potential secret weapon – Herry Saliku Biembe. The relatively unknown boxer impressed WSB scouts last year and becomes the first Swiss athlete to compete in the series.
The light heavyweight contest in Paris features two unbeaten top-three boxers. The home side’s Ludovic Groguhe (France) carries a 4-0 record into the encounter and tops the individual rankings, while his opponent Enrico Kolling (Germany) has put in three straight wins since making his debut for the Istanbulls in week four. Kolling is in third place in the rankings but even with a win in Paris it will be difficult for him to unseat Groguhe, who has a near-perfect record of 595 points.
Dolce & Gabbana Milano Thunder are once again bringing out their big guns for a second consecutive home match, this time against a Moscow Kremlin Bears side that features three new signings. Light heavyweight Zhavlonbek Usmanov (Kyrgyzstan) has a 3-1 record for the Bears and is one of only two boxers for the team who is ranked in the top ten.
The visitors’ 19-year-old heavyweight Sherip Daudov (Russia) will face Milan’s daunting Benjey Zimmerman (Netherlands Antilles), who usually tips the scales at well over 120 kilograms.
Looking for a fourth consecutive win, the Mexico City Guerreros will trot out two of their most reliable fighters this season in Braulio Avila (Mexico) and Yamaguchi Florentino (Brazil) into the home ring against the Miami Gallos on Friday night. Both have 3-1 records and most recently fought on the February 4 card when the Guerreros beat the LA Matadors for the first time this season.
Making their WSB debuts Friday night will be MC Guerrero heavyweight Mario Heredia (Mexico) and Miami Gallos middleweight Felix Rodriguez (Puerto Rico). Heredia is the 2009 Mexican National Champion while Rodriguez is the 2009 Olympic Cup silver medalist.
After suffering just two losses this season, the Los Angeles Matadors are travelling to Memphis with a proven squad of top-ranked WSB boxers for Friday night’s encounter. The Force are replying with a squad that features three Olympians and two USA Boxing national champions.
Bantamweight Fernando Martinez (Argentina) of the LA Matadors is 3-0 and ranks fourth in the WSB standings, just behind teammate Rau’shee Warren (USA). He will face reigning World Champion Detelin Dalakiev (Bulgaria) who will be looking to avenge an earlier loss to Martinez.
Russell Lamour (USA) is undefeated so far this and is ranked fifth, but is just one victory away from moving into second-place overall and will face US national champion Terrell Gausha of the Force in the middleweight contest.
In the second of two rematches in Mexico City, Cam Thompson once again faces Javier Torres in an all-American heavyweight contest. Thompson defeated Torres in a hard-hitting bout in week four.
All the action in the Asian conference takes place on Saturday, with the Beijing Dragons hosting second-place Astana Arlans and the Baku Fires welcoming the Pohang Poseidons.
Astana Arlans’ Olympic champion Bakhyt Sarsekbayev (Kazakhstan) will face the home team’s Wei Liu (China) in a repeat of the week four middleweight contest between the two teams. Sarsekbayev is unbeaten since winning this bout.
Zhimin Wang (China) is the only Dragons boxer with a positive record (3-1) in action this week but will face a strong opponent in Merey Akshalov (Kazakhstan) – his record is 3-0 and he is currently ranked fifth in the individual lightweight standings.
Unbeaten Baku Fires will welcome bottom-of-the-table Pohang Poseidons to the Serhedchi Olympic Sports Complex on Saturday evening. Baku have a comfortable eight-point lead over their chasers Astana Arlans and are resting some of their key personnel this week, with their squad counting only seven bouts of WSB experience in eight weeks of competition.
AIBA President’s Cup gold medallist in 2009, Semen Grivachev (Russia), will debut for the Fires against Bahodirjon Sultonov (Uzbekistan) in the lightweight bout. Algerians Abdelhafid Benchabla and Chouaib Bouloudinats will be hoping to continue their winning streaks in the light heavyweight and heavyweight bouts respectively. With a 4-0 record, Benchabla is ranked second overall at light heavyweight and will undoubtedly be the most avid viewer of the Groguhe-Kolling duel in Paris on Friday.
Click here for the full week 9 boxing squads.
