The fight was scored as such: 114-114, 114-114, and 116-113 for the 31-year-old Alekseev. However, Arslan appeared to do more than enough to win the fight based on his total domination in the first half of the fight when he was able to out-slug a confused looking Alekseev on the inside. It wasn’t until the 11th round when Alekseev finally made some adjustments and was able to win some rounds by fighting on the outside. But it remarkable what a really dumb fight that Alekseev put in, because it’s not as if he didn’t already know coming into the fight how good of an inside fighter that Arslan is.
Alekseev has never been much of an inside fighter, and for him to fight Arslan’s type of fight round after round seemed like an insane thing to do. And the judges’ scores were just out of this world, because Arslan appeared to win the fight easily by a four to six round cushion. To have judges score the fight even, and one giving the fight to Alekseev, was just a joke..
Alekseev and Arslan’s promoters have until June 23rd to set up the rematch. If the two can’t come to an agreement by then, a purse bit will take place at the European Boxing Union headquarters in Rome, Italy. Reportedly, two promotional companies have started discussions for the rematch, and this should make the purse bid not needed for this case.
Alekseev can likely beat Arslan in the rematch if he chooses to box him, but it’s still sad that Arslan is having to fight Alekseev for a second time instead of making his first defense of the title.