It wasn’t pretty – in more ways than one – but Guido Vianello took a significant step toward heavyweight contention Saturday in Quebec City, Canada, by outmaneuvering the plodding Arslanbek Makhmudov, closing the Russian giant’s left eye and convincing the ringside doctor to recommend a stoppage at the start of the eighth round.
The swelling began in Round 3, invading Makhmudov’s eye from below, and by the seventh, the disfigurement was beginning to spread up his forehead. After letting Makhmudov pass inspection several times by counting fingers, the doctor finally had seen enough, and referee Albert Padulo Jr. officially called a halt on his advice.
Despite coming in off a defeat, Vianello (13-2-1, 11 KOs) boxed from the start with visible confidence – understandable given that he exceeded the expectations of most observers in losing a tight split decision to Efe Ajagba in April. Makhmudov, on the other hand, two fights removed from his only prior defeat, by fourth-round stoppage to Agit Kabayel last December, was slow and stiff and could never get on track in this co-featured bout underneath the Christian Mbilli vs. Sergiy Derevyanchenko main event at Centre Videotron.
Vianello won every round in the battle of 6-foot-6 behemoths, and none of those rounds required any internal debate to score. The Italian used his legs and outboxed Makhmudov (19-2, 18 KOs) from the start, mixing up his attack and keeping “The Lion” off-balance. Vianello was making it look easy – and once Makhmudov's eye began to swell in the third round, it became that much easier.
Makhmudov’s strategy became to try to maul Vianello, but “The Gladiator” kept smartly moving to his right, throwing punches that the Montreal-based Russian couldn’t see coming. By the fifth, even though Vianello suffered a cut from a head clash, Makhmudov was increasingly looking toward his corner, as if for rescue, as his vision worsened.
A right uppercut to the eye seemed to bother Makhmudov in the sixth, and the action was getting almost as ugly as the swelling, with repeated warnings to both men for getting rough in the clinches. Padulo took an entirely academic point from Makhmudov in the sixth for pushing Vianello with his forearm, and Makhmudov seemed ready to check out after the relatively quick-fisted Vianello strafed him with a four-punch combination toward the end of the round.
In the seventh, Vianello scored a knockdown that Padulo missed, Makhmudov’s glove clearly touching the canvas. A right-left combination soon wobbled Makhmudov into the ropes, and it was apparent to nearly everyone by round’s end that the fight shouldn’t go on. Even though Makhmudov was still successfully counting the doctor’s fingers when timeout was called at the start of the eighth, the doc finally opened his eyes to what had to be done.
Whatever physical recovery Makhmudov makes, any perception of him as a heavyweight contender is unlikely to return. Vianello, on the other hand, is suddenly looking like a fringe player in boxing’s glamour division at age 30, his only two losses coming on a cut in a fight he was leading against Jonathan Rice and by split decision to the reasonably well-regarded Ajagba.