By Alexey Sukachev

In what has come a little bit under the radar, two Russian participants of the recent World Boxing Super Series in the cruiserweight division, got back to the winning columns a week ago in Krasnodar, Russia, against relatively soft opponents. The show took place at Cortesia Hall on May 19 under SJV Boxing Promotions.

IBF #9 and WBC #13 ranked Ruslan Fayfer, who has lost to Andrew Tabiti, outboxed rugged Ukrainian Sergiy Radchenko (7-4, 2 KOs) over ten rounds with wide scores: 99-91, 98-92, and 97-94.

Radchenko, putting his mediocre record aside, is best known for almost knocking out ex-WBO champion KrzysztofGlowacki in February 2018 and bringing another Pole Adam Balski (12-0 at the time) to the limit at the end of 2018. Fayfer is now 24-1, 16 KOs.

WBO #8 Maxim Vlasov (43-3, 26 KOs) had even less trouble against hard-heating but raw Venezuelan Omar Garcia (14-2, 12 KOs). Garcia has upset previously undefeated Movsur Yusupov just a month ago but was hugely overmatched by one of the Russia’s finest. Vlasov scored a stoppage in the fourth, while decking Garcia once in the third.

Timex Boxing Promotions, led by Marcel and Mariusz Grabowski staged a nice-packed local show with a single world title fight this past Saturday in Jelenia Gora, Poland.

In the main event, local female star Ewa Brodnicka (17-0, 2 KOs) barely retained her WBO Super featherweight title and unblemished record with a hard-fought, close majority decision over former WBA/IBF bantamweight champion Janeth Perez of Mexico. Perez, 29, gave her all as she always does (she has never lost one-sidedly previously in her career), but lost just barely: 95-95, 94-96, and 93-97. Her record goes down to 24-5-2, 6 KOs, while Brodnicka, 34, retained her belt for the third time.

Welterweight Michal “Pike” Lesniak (11-1-1, 3 KOs) was also seen in a close fight, digging deep to overcome always tough Russian import Maxim Churbanov (8-4-1). Scores were: 78-74, and 77-75 (twice) for the Pole.

In an all-Polish encounter, junior welterweight Michal Chudecki continued his W-streak by getting the better of Kamil Mlodzinski (11-4-4, 6 KOs) on a close unanimous decision: 78-74, 78-75, and 77-75.

Finally, speaking of fight of note, heavyweight Marcin Siwy (19-0, 8 KOs) accomplished a somewhat historical feat by putting Ukrainian veteran and former two-time (2000 and 2004) Olympian Alexey Mazikin below 0.500 with a stoppage win in round four. Siwy dropped Mazikin down with a left hook in the second and repeated this trick thrice more in the third, ending the fight at 1:18 of the round. Mazikin, who was once ranked in top-15, has scored just a single win (against 0-1 opponent) over the last ten years and has lost his ninth straight, going down to 14-15-2, 4 KOs.

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On the same date in a much bigger Polish city of Poznan, albeit in at a far lesser event, another Ukrainian Olympian (class of 2008) Olexander Stretskiy, now 33, avenged the sole loss of his pro career, which he suffered in September 2017, by outpointing Bartolomiej Grafka (22-34-3, 10 KOs) with a single score by the referee: 77-75. Stretskiy is now 8-1-1, 3 KOs.

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Netherlands-based Armenian middleweight Gevorg Khatchikian continued his winning road on Saturday night at de Bonte Wever in Assen, scoring a wide points victory over Ukrainian journeyman Ruslan Schelev (15-12-1, 8 KOs), who was dropped in the seventh round. The score was 100-89. Khatchikian, best known for his losses to James DeGale and Gilberto Ramirez, is now 29-2, 14 KOs.

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It’s amazing how one’s career can change over a short period of time – both to the worse and to the better. Arif Magomedov, who debuted as a pro in 2013, was once one of Russia’s top prospects, with one-sided wins over 16-0 Alex Theran and Michael Zerafa and the first-round blowout of dangerous gatekeeper Darnell Boone.

Magomedov was up in the stars before being mercilessly brought down – firstly by little-known Andre Hernandez (11-4 at the time), and then being stopped by Luis Arias. Magomedov came back and presumably ended his career (at least for the time being), being schooled by 9-6 Georgian journeyman LashaGurguliani exactly a year ago.

Meanwhile, the very same Gurguliani, presumably a cannon fodder for bigger fighter, showed he was no fluke. Magomedov wasn’t his first victim, as he soundly outboxed 25-3 Nuhu Lawal just half a year before that. Then Gurguliani missed a year only to strike again. On Friday night, May 24, he became the world titleholder (of sorts) by beating Egyptian Greek Andread Valavanis (13-2, 11 KOs) on his home turf in Heliopolis, Egypt, with a unanimous decision over twelve rounds. He is now 11-6, 2 KOs, and a proud owner of little-relevant World Boxing Federation light middleweight title.