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ASTANA ARLANS SHUT OUT ISTANBULLS AT FIRST WSB EXHIBITION MATCH PhilBoxing.com Mon, 01 Nov 2010 Almaty, Kazakhstan, October 31 ? The home side put on a spectacular boxing display at the Almaty Sports Palace this evening, dominating all five of the weight categories to secure a 5-0 victory in the first-ever World Series of Boxing bout. Opening the proceedings with a short speech, AIBA President C. K. Wu said that "the World Series of Boxing is a key element in AIBA's vision for the future development of boxing. It will help boxers with their careers; it will provide a return on investment for the national federations who nurture its boxers; but most importantly it will change the perception of boxing." After Bagad Alimbekov took the opening victory in the 54kg bantamweight category, Yerzhan Mussafirov buoyed the Astana Arlans team even further with a technical knock-out against Mehmet Top?akan of the Istanbulls in the second round of the 61kg lightweight contest. Top?akan picked up two standing counts in the round, which requires the referee to stop the contest under the WSB competition rules. "The first round was quite tough because I didn't know my opponent," Mussafirov said. But after the second round it started to get easier. In the second round he [Top?akan] seemed more tired and more open for me." The 73kg middleweight division saw a return to the ring for Kazakhstan's Olympic Champion Bakhyt Sarsekbayev, who cruised to an easy victory over the Istanbulls' team captain Onur Şipal. Sarsekbayev had little time for covering defence and seemed at ease in the ring. "In a few years' time, I think this is going to be a massive tournament," Sipal said. "I was fighting against a champion and I will never forget this moment because I have written a piece of history. It was difficult to move up from 64kg and October was a very busy month for me with eight matches, including the World University Championships in Mongolia and the national championships in Turkey." Ghana's Maxwell Amponsah enjoyed the vociferous backing of the home crowd as he put in a stylish performance to dismiss Onder Ozg?l. Amponsah seems to have adapted well to life in Kazakhstan and even had a few Russian words ready for the local journalists. "I'm happy that I won," he said. "My opponent came here to fight and came at me with hard punches. I need more training because I'm hoping to win my fights. I'm not hoping to knock my opponents out, but I do need to train harder." In the fifth and final bout of the evening in the 91+kg heavyweight division, Serbian heavyweight Milutin Stankovic rounded off the strong start for the home team with a unanimous decision from the judges. About the World Series of Boxing Ushering in a new era in boxing, the World Series of Boxing is a new global boxing series that is an initiative of AIBA, the International Boxing Association, under the leadership of its president Dr. C.K. Wu. The World Series of Boxing will bring together the best of the amateur and professional boxing worlds. Not only will it be the first truly global professional-style boxing tournament, it will also allow all participants to retain their eligibility to participate in the Olympic Games and the Individual Champions to qualify directly for the London 2012 Olympic Games. The WSB comprises 12 city-based Franchise teams spread across three regional conferences: Asia, the Americas and Europe. During the regular season (November 2010 to March 2011), teams in each conference will compete against each other over two home and two away legs (a total of 12 matches per team). Boxing squads consist of between 10 and 20 boxers, with a cap on the maximum number of national boxers and a requirement to field between 3 and 6 non-national boxers according to squad size. The top team from each conference, plus the best second-placed team, will then go through to the play-off series to compete for a place in the team championship final at a neutral venue. Separate individual championships will be held for the best boxers in each of the five weight divisions (54kg, 61kg, 73kg, 85kg, +91kg). |
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