Serbia’s Pavel Fedorov won a close contest in the main event of IBA Kunlun Fight World Cup at the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China, against three-time IBA World champion Sofiane Oumiha from France.

In a night of 63.5kg quarterfinal matches, with all of them fought in 6 round, Fedorov and Oumiha came in to the bout with stellar amateur careers and promising starts to their time as professionals.

Oumiha was very quick on his feet, finding the balance between evasion and attack and regularly put together accurate jabs including a great one-two in the third round. Fedorov on the other hand looked good on the front foot, with more punches albeit with less accuracy.

Fedorov’s unanimous decision win was a surprise to Oumiha who had looked as strong throughout the bout, but the contest was close enough that the verdict could have gone in either direction.

Erislandy Alvarez was victorious again, defeating Adilet Kurmetov from Kazakhstan. The Cuban was incredibly impressive on his IBA Champions’ Night in Havana and continued to show why he is one of the great up-and-coming boxers across the globe. The Olympic champion startled the Kazakh in the second round with clear strikes to the torso, leaving him groggy, but it was a right hand again to the body that caused a knockdown in the third round.

Alvarez expended plenty of energy attempting to put Kurmetov away, but to the Kazakh’s credit, he was very resilient and managed to stay on his feet. The sixth round saw more onslaught from the Cuban who had his opponent on the ropes. While Alvarez would be unable to knock his opponent out, he was the clear winner.

Gabil Mamedov of Russia defeated Luis Arcon from Venezuela over six rounds with strong displays from both boxers.

Mamedov landed an uppercut on the chin of Arcon at the end of the first round, signaling what would be the start of more to come – an action-packed encounter. The Venezuelan had single shots, but Mamedov landed timely jabs. It was not just one-way traffic. Arcon caused stirs to the Russian, often catching on the counter-offence.

The third round showed the quality that Mamedov possesses, with the highlight being a double left hook to the body and head. Arcon looked none phased at the punishment he faced, even replying immediately to a flashing left uppercut with an impressive strike himself. It was Mamedov who would emerge as the victor by a unanimous decision, but the judges’ cards were closer than what it may have looked on paper.

Tajikistan’s Bakhodur Usmonov emerged victorious in the first boxing match of the night, beating home favorite Wang LeQuan of China.

Wang was capable of catching Usmonov with single strikes, but the world medallist from Tajikistan was impressive throughout. In the fourth round, his plan started to come to fruition, catching Wang with hooks with crisp combinations. With two rounds to go, Usmonov started to stalk his opponent, responding to the increased Chinese aggression at the start of the fifth round. While the Tajikistan boxer was seeking a knockout victory, Wang to his credit lasted the whole six rounds.

Aside from the boxing, there were four kickboxing contests too. The headliner saw China’s Saliman Abobulihairi defeat Thailand’s Yodkitti T. Thepsuthin in the first round of their 61kg bout. The match ended before it could really get started when Abobulihairi landed a high right kick to the head of Thepsuthin.

Samuele de Meis from Italy would defeat Marco Alves of Brazil early in the third round in the 70kg weight division. It followed on from Stanislav Kazantesv from Ukraine defeating Renato Goman of Hungary in the second round.

In the opening match Zhang Mingyang of China defeated Bilal Zeghlache of France after 14 seconds, after the Frenchman suffered a serious leg break in their 85kg match.

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Media contacts:

Elena Sobol, Head of Communications and PR, International Boxing Association: elena.sobol@iba.sport

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