By Alexey Sukachev

Danny Williams, once a Tyson conqueror and a multi-time domestic (Commonwealth and BBBofC British) titleholder continued his pitiful road into oblivion by losing his fourth straight fight – this time in Russia.

Williams (now 44-14, with 33 KOs) was battling another faded has-been in Denis Bakhtov (36-8, 24 KOs) in what was the main event of the show, promoted by Sergey Stepkin at Sport Service in Podolsk, ten or so kilometers south to Moscow. Williams, 39, was a shell of his former self but still gave fits to his younger but also shopworn opponent. Bakhtov used his left uppercuts to an extent. One of those forced Williams down in the second round, and then again – in the fourth.

Feeling like it was his last sensible chance to succeed, Williams went forward and rocked Bakhtov in a couple of moments. However, when it seemed he had a chance, the Russian landed a solid right hook to knock the Brit down in the eighth round. Both fighters gave their all in the closing stages of the bout, but a gutsy Russian prevailed. Final scores were: 99-88, 99-90, and 99-91 – all for Denis Bakhtov.

In his comeback after a lopsided defeat from the hands of Cornelius White, former WBO title challenger and IBF #12 light heavyweight Dmitry Sukhotskiy (19-2, 14 KOs) looked relatively sharp in the first round blowout of the hapless Ukrainian Vladimir Borovskiy (21-5-2, 8 KOs). Borovskiy ate a colossal right hand, took a knee and was counted off at 2:36 mark of the very first round.

Crowd favorite Roman Seliverstov (15-9, 4 KOs), a much better fighter than his record tells (proven by his wins over Cosme Rivera and Michael Trabant) remained busy with a wide decision over journeyman Vyacheslav Yakovenko (7-17-1, 3 KOs), who dropped his fourteenth straight. Yakovenko was battered badly and was deducted a point for excessive spit of his mouthpiece, losing 60-53 across the boards. Seliverstov is said to fight undefeated Dmitry Mikhailenko (14-0, 5 KOs) in the undercard of Maskaev – Beck promotion on Dec. 30 in Troitsk.

With an epitome of a left hook, former light heavyweight Karen Avetisyan (6-5-1, 3 KOs) made his thunderous debut three divisions lighter and knocked out favorite Arman Ovsepyan (12-3, 10 KOs) unconscious in the second round of their fight. Also, former BBU light middleweight champion Vusal Aliyev improved to 11-0, 5 KOs, after a unanimous decision over tough competitor Maxim Nikonorov (2-8-1, 1 KO). Scores were: 60-54 (twice) and 60-55.

Other results:

Mikhail Smirnov (2-0) KO 2 Ivan Varlamov (0-2-1)

Sergey Sergeev (4-7) UD 4 Arif Magomedov (0-1)