The second season of the Al Siesta-promoted "KOld Wars" ended in Minsk, Belarus, with a bang. Fighting in front of his fans in what has unexpectedly become a hotbed of European boxing amongst ongoing pandemics, 29-year old local Evgeny Dolgolevets produced a spirited upset over much more experienced Russian Georgy Chelokhsaev (19-2-1, 12 KOs) to capture a vacant Eurasian Boxing Parliament light welterweight title with a unanimous decision over ten rounds.
Formerly ranked Chelokhsaev, 26, was riding a prolonged winning streak, coming all the way down to his 2015 close loss to Vaginak Tamrazyan. He has over one hundred professional rounds to his resume coming into this fight.Dolgolevets, on the other hand, was just three rounds (and the same number of fights), going into his biggest career step-up. However, Chelokhsaev's colossal advantage in pro experience was well made up by the Belarussian's previous amateur achievements.
The local slugger wasn't shy about his deceiving pro record, immediately bringing the fight to the native of Vladikavkaz. Dolgolevets aggressively marched forward but he was doing it the smart way, avoiding unnecessary punishment from the Russian and landing hard clean shots - specifically with his left hand. The Belarussian landed a huge counter left hook to the chin to trouble Chelokhsaev.
The next several rounds were fought in trenches, and Dolgolevets showed poise and determination. He was also winning the ending seconds of some rounds (specifically from round four to round six), brutalizing Chelokhsaev but failing to drop him, as the Russian quickly recovered after eating some hard leather.
By round seven, Dolgolevets began to express signs of fatigue. Chelokhsaev obliged and rolled out his full offensive. Dolgolevets, who combined power with cleverness early on, was forced to move out and to stay defensive against his opponent who has finally caught his second breathe. Both fighters were solid in later rounds but Chelokhsaev has slightly prevailed in the end game.
After ten rounds, two judges preferred Evgeny Dolgolevets: 98-92 and 96-94, while the third had it for Georgy Cheloksaev: 96-95. Dolgolevets is now 4-0, 3 KOs.
In the Russia vs. Iran encounter, former world title challenger Yulia Kutsenko (8-1-1, 3 KOs) improved her record with a hard-fought win over part-time boxer, part-time actress Puneh Akhundtabarmazandarani (5-2, 2 KOs), who previously competed in Ukraine and Turkey. Kutsenko scored a unanimous decision over six rounds.
Six years after his pro debut (a draw versus 30-8-1 Francis Cheka), Iranian Sajjad Mehrabi came back to the ring to outpoint local recent debutant Pavel Shelest (1-1) over six rounds. Mehrabi, 34, boxed more as a counterpuncher to Shelest, 27, and prevailed in later rounds.
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