Regnum Carya Hotel, Antalya, Turkey - In a crossroads heavyweight fight, Otto Wallin (26-1, 14 KOs) secured a twelve round split decision win over former unified cruiserweight champion Murat Gassiev (30-2, 23 KOs).
The scores were 115-113 Wallin, an absurd card of 117-111 for Gassiev, and 115-113 for Wallin.
Ironically, the sole defeat on each record came at the hands of the current rulers of the weight class.
Entering the fight, Wallin had won five fights in a row since losing a tough twelve round unanimous decision to current WBC world champion Tyson Fury.
And for Gassiev, he won four fights in a row since losing a twelve round decision to Oleksandr Usyk in their cruiserweight unification in 2018. Usyk is the current WBO, IBF, IBO, WBA heavyweight champion. Gassiev moved up to heavyweight in 2020.
In Saturday's contest, Gassiev had a lot of trouble with the size, the reach and movement of Wallin. During the sixth, Wallin seemed to hurt Gassiev and went after him, but wasn't able to finish him off.
During certain moments, Gassiev was able to land the kind of shots which usually downed opponents at cruiserweight. However, he wasn't able to dent the chin or body of the bigger Wallin, who took the shots well and never appeared to be in any serious trouble.
As the fight played out, Wallin continued to peck away with a consistent jab as Gassiev pressed forward for most of the fight. And while Gassiev applied pressure in each round and was mostly throwing power shots, he wasn't able to do much damage - while Wallin was busier and more accurate with his punches. Gassiev was unable to take full advantage when Wallin appeared to tire in the championship rounds. The battle-tested Russian would often unload with one punch at a time.
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