By Alexey Sukachev

Krylia Sovetov, Moscow, Russia - In the best fight of the night, Khabib Allakhverdiev (16-0, 7 KOs) excelled against another sound name, stopping Columbian upset specialist Ignacio "Nacho" Mendoza in seven thrilling rounds.

WBA #9 light welterweight Mendoza (33-7-2, 21 KOs) came in to fight and was giving the Russian fits for the first four rounds. Later on, Khabib began to dominate in power exchanges and finally put him down in the sixth with a straight left hand to the head. Mendoza got up but never recovered, and the fight was stopped at 0:27 of the seventh by referee Alexander Kalinkin, after another combo landed. Maybe the stoppage was too early, as the Columbian was still throwing punches. Khabib is now the WBA Fedelatin 140lb champion.

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Comebacking cruiserweight contender Grigory Drozd (34-1, 24 KOs) piled up another stoppage victory, this time against former WBA light heavyweight king Richard Hall, in his biggest win since 2009.

Drozd was more effective and powerful than the Jamaican and used his impressive body-punching to slow the former champion down. Hall (30-9, 28 KOs) let his hands go less and less with each fought round, and finally he surrendered in his corner after the eighth. There were no knockdowns.

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Sergey Rozhnov (now 1-0), 29, made a fascinating professional debut by pounding out a convincing four-round win over former two-time heavyweight world title challenger Owen Beck (29-10, 21 KOs) of Jamaica. Rozhnov forced Beck to fight on unsteady legs from round one and made a pizza of his face before the final bell. Scores were 40-36 on all the judges scorecards. Beck lost his seventh in a row.

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In the opener, "Russian Gatti" Oleg Liseev (3-1, 2 KOs) scored a hard-fought back-and-forth eight round unanimous decision over tough-as-nails Ukrainian trialhorse Mykola Korenev (2-13) over eight. Scores were 80-72 across the boards.

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