By Alexey Sukachev

28-year old Russian cruiserweight Dmitry Kudriashov (11-0, 11 KOs) continued to improve his record on Saturday night in Rostov-na-Donu, southern Russia, and added his first “world” title – a meaningless GBU belt – in the process.

Kudriashov was matched up against damaged goods in former world title challenger Shawn Cox of Barbados. Cox, 38, fought in Russia a year and a half ago, giving some scare to then-WBA champion Denis Lebedev before being knocked out in two. Little is left of that dangerous knockout artist. Cox fought a month ago in South Africa, was blitzed in one and was reported to have injured his leg in it.

Nevertheless, he chose to compete against younger and fresher Kudriashov and looked plain terrible. With constant drags of his left foot and inability to cope with the Russian power, the only question raised was not “Who?” but “When?”. The moment came in the second after a major right hand by Dmitry, which had Cox down and out in and utter mismatch. The Barbadian, who is now 17-4, 16 KOs, was down several times before without any hard leather taken.

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On the undercard, light heavyweight Movsur Yusupov (5-0, 3 KOs) also acquired a vacant GBU belt – this time at light heavyweight – by notching a technical decision over Czech master Josef Obeslo (4-13-1, 2 KOs). Time was : 80-72 – across the boards at the time of stoppage, induced by a severe accidental cut.

Also, hot blonde Natalya Smirnova (7-0, 4 KOs) improved her record with a competitive win over Czech Hana Horakova (3-10). Final scores – 100-90 and 99-91 (twice) didn’t reflect the proximity of the fight.

Vasily Kostenko’s SKV boxing promoted the event

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Other Results:

Aliklych Kanbolatov (5-2, 2 KOs) UD 8 Leri Tedeev (1-1)

Viskhan Mursabekov (6-0, 3 KOs) KO 1 Dmitry Lavrinenko (2-8, 1 KO)

Gasan Gasanov (6-2, 5 KOs) KO 1 Mikhail Smurygin (0-2)

Apti Davtaev (3-0, 3 KOs) TKO 1 Vyacheslav Scherbakov (3-16-1, 2 KOs)

Apti Ustarkhanov (3-1-1, 1 KO) UD 6 Gor Akopyan (0-4)

Vladislav Yeremenko (1-0) UD 4 Zubair Suleymanov (0-1)