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Astana Arlans face Mexico City Guerreros in intriguing quarter-final contest this Friday PhilBoxing.com Fri, 02 Mar 2012 Lausanne, Switzerland, 1 March 2012 - This promises to be very close when the Mexico City Guerreros, who finished second in Group B, travel to the Kazak capital to do battle with the colossal Astana Arlans. Hot on the heels of the Group A leaders for much of the regular season, the Arlans came so close to topping the table but were eventually undone by their noisy neighbours, Dynamo Moscow. Last season's beaten finalist will look to take a major step towards semi-final qualification when the Mexican Franchise come to the cauldron of noise that is the Daulet Sports Complex this Friday. The home team boast an impressive record in the competition and some of their boxers' displays have really caught the imagination of the fans. The stand-out fixture came in Week 4 when they reserved a hot reception for Moscow, it was nail-biting, edge of your seats drama, with the match decided in the last round of the night's last fight when Heavyweight Ruslan Myrsatayev found the reserves to defeat giant Sergey Kalchugin. That result set the Arlans on a roll as they recorded five successive victories to put themselves into contention for a top table finish. Eventually their statistics read seven wins in their ten fights, which overall was the equal third best record in the whole competition. Lining up against the Guerreros in the Bantamweight will be 20-year-old Kazak Khabibulla Ismail-Akhunov, who might not have the best record in the division, but has acquitted himself very well when he faced the big names this season. Quick and agile, he is one for the future. As one of the sport's growing nations, the production line of talent is the country bodes well for the future. Astana's Merey Akshalov has been their leading light in the Lightweight category with three wins no losses to his name and he will be strutting his stuff in the ring in the first leg of this quarter-final showdown. Samat Bashenov, the 24-year-old southpaw, is another Lightweight weapon in the Arlans' arsenal; his confident display against Mumbai's Charly Suarez will surely put him the frame for the second leg. Watch Akshalov overwhelm Miklos Vargas Current Middleweight National Champion Rustam Svayev is another young prospect at just 21 years of age; he will be looking to put his previous defeat to bed when he takes to the ring. The two knock-out kings in the division, Miras Bairkhanov and Kanat Slam, both stars in their homeland, will be the muscle to be sent to Mexico for the return fixture. Struggling for form this season, the Light Heavyweight Uzbek Ramzjon Ahmedov will look to finally kick-start a campaign that has seen him under-perform. He will be hoping to make a big impression. The star and big-name of the team, the current WSB Individual Champion, Abdelhafid Benchabla (Read about him) will be a spectator at home before being unleashed in the Mexican capital. Man-mountain Daniyar Ustembayev could also be used if Astana get an overwhelming result in front of their home crowds. In the Heavyweights, Astana have the lionheart that is Ruslan Myrsatayev and Algerian powerhouse Chouaib Bouloudinats, who both went undefeated this season. With those two in their armoury they will be hard to beat. The fighting talk though has come from Head Coach Beibut Yeszhanov, a Soviet Union National Flyweight Champion in his heyday, believing firmly that they have the tools required to go one better this season and take that WSB trophy (Read his interview). The Mexico City Guerreros have had a bit of a rollercoaster season, struggling to find consistency with wins at home, at the venue now dubbed fortress Foro Polanco, and only losses away until Week 6, which was the watershed moment in their season. In fact their 5:0 thrashing of Leipzig Leopards saw them set-off on a four match winning streak that included a sensational away victory against Paris United. They suffered their first home loss against undefeated Baku Fires in the ultimate match of the regular season but pushed the Azeri outfit all the way without their big names. Continuing the Mexican tradition of producing some of the best fighters in the Bantamweight and Lightweight divisions, the Guerreros ensured that they qualified a representative in each of those categories at the WSB Individual Finals. One of those is 20-year-old rising orthodox Mexican star, Elias Emigdio, who just keeps getting better and better in this competition, making it four wins in four this season, with his overall WSB record now standing at seven wins one loss. His battle in the Individual Finals against Baku's Germakhanov promises to be nothing short of top drawer. The rangy Juan Romero was another to qualify in impressive style, with three wins that included a demolition of Unal Gulec. Taking to the ring this Friday in the Middleweight fight will be Ukraine's Dmytro Mytrofanov who has a lethal hook in his locker, just ask Sefa Karadeniz. Stablemate, Bulgarian Mladen Manev is another heavy-hitter for the Guerreros and will most definitely be the man to dispute the second leg back in Mexico City. Fan's favourite, charismatic Swede Kennedy Katende has really set the competition alight with both his fists and his showmanship. He has been a delight to watch and many will be glued to their screens in anticipation of his match this Friday (Read his insightful interview). This match will be too close to call.  |
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