BBU Light Heavyweight title: On Thursday night on the 2nd July, two time Russian promoter of the year German Titov staged his biggest tournament in 2009 so far, bringing world class professional boxing to Moscow for the first time in ten months. A world financial meltdown surely took its toll on the Russian boxing community, but Titov was able to arrange a well packed card with a number of title bouts, several nice looking young prospects, competitive opposition for them, and huge attention of the Russian media, both paper and electronic. Though there were empty seats at “Dynamo” sports arena in Krylatskoye district, the vast majority of those, who had come to see the action, were quite thrilled and touched by the fights..
An eight round bout between two undefeated Russian light heavyweights : Vasily Lepikhin (7-0, 4 KOs) and Roman Simakov (6-1-1, 4 KOs) for the vacant Baltic Boxing Union 175lb belt was hidden in the midst of the card. However, the all action slugfest became the real gem of the night and an obvious front runner for the fight of the year here in Russia so far.
Reigning Russian light heavyweight champion Lepikhin, 24, is a tall (officially 6’3’’ but visibly 6’4’’ if not higher) stylistically sound counter puncher, while his opponent is a shorter take-no-prisoners come-forward banger with a solid build and considerable menace in his punches. Simakov, 25, went right to it from the starting bell, throwing all types of punches and cornering Lepikhin near the ropes. Simakov was punching hard, leaving no doubt in his bad intentions, while Lepikhin, nicknamed “The Professor”, was mostly covering but without any bob-and-weaving which resulted in him being seriously rocked a few times. In round two, Lepikhin didn’t start to move until he was shouted at by his father and his coach. But when he finally began to move sharper, the result was immediate as Simakov started to miss with his lead right hand while taking some blows in return. In the midst of the round, Lepikhin landed a short and seemingly weak right hook to the body, which surprisingly almost doubled Simakov up. The end of the round was in Professor’s favor as he seriously wobbled his opponent but failed to stop him early.
In round three, Lepikhin finally found his rhythm, circling around rugged Simakov and battering him with all kinds of punches. When Simakov finally pinned him to the ropes, Lepikhin threw a picture perfect right uppercut to the head, which had Roman down for the count. Being considerably dazed, Simakov somehow survived till the end of the stanza.
Rounds four and five were all Lepikhin’s as he outslugged and outpunched his opponent. It seemed that both fighters had the same caliber of ammunition, but Lepikhin’s ability to take the punch was a bit higher than that of Simakov. Nevertheless, Simakov never stopped delivering bombs even though his face was quickly turning into a bloody mask.
Round six was even, but in round seven another turnaround approached, when Lepikhin began to show signs of erosion. Simakov, catching his second wind, had some success in this stanza, and both fighters went toe-to-toe during the last round, which saw the excited partisan crowd on its feet encouraging both boxers.
At the end, Evgueny Gorstkov, who scored the fight 75-76 in favor of Simakov, was overruled by Victor Panin (78-74) and Nikolay Puchkov (77-74), both of whom saw Lepikhin as a winner.
Upcoming Baltic Boxing Union title fight
BBU Middleweight title: There will be a quite big pro boxing show (in Finnish scale) with at least five bouts at Pori Finland on the 12th September 2009. In the main event the reigning BBU Middleweight champion Kai “Ironman” Kauramäki 16 (5 KO) – 15 – 0, who won his title back in April 2009 in Poland against Mariusz Cendrowski with result TKO 8, will defend the BBU Middleweight title against opponent to be announced. The fight will be scheduled for 8 rounds.
Other BBU news:
* Baltic Boxing Union has changed its championship belt. The new belt weights about 2,3 kilos and is very high quality. The belt, which can be seen below, is made with artificial leather and brass.
The belt will be used since 1st August 2009. When the reigning champion is scheduled to defend his title, he is also awarded with this new title belt. The first champion to go to ring with this new belt will be Kai Kauramäki (FIN).