By Alexey Sukachev and Dmitry Mikhalchuk (at ringside)

WBO #3 Maksym Bursak (now 21-0-1, 8 KOs) produced one of his finest performances so far, scoring a hard-fought but easily-judged unanimous decision over determined American upset specialist Brian Vera (17-5, 11 KOs) to retain his WBO I/C middleweight belt for the initial time.

Bursak went right at it with the starting bell surprising the American slugger with his own zeal and vengeance. The first two rounds ended in all-action slugfest, which surprisingly was in Ukrainian's favour. In round three, Vera finally got on track with his punches and started to trouble Bursak once and again. Round four was an all-American performance as Vera tagged Bursak cleanly several times and put him on the defensive. The midst of the fight was almost equal as both pugilists tried hard to impose their will on each other but to no success. Finally, at the end of the sixth stanza Bursak found his distance and moved a little bit out of his rival's fire range. Rounds seven to nine saw the Ukranian boxing wisely from the distance, mixing hard punches with stopping jabs while Vera did his best to engage Bursak into toe-to-toe war. Bursak skills and lateral movement prevented this turn of events; instead the local favorite was gaining points while lowering the risk of being punched hard at the same time. The Ukrainian also delivered several sneaky uppercuts in close quarters when was forced to. In round ten, Bursak has once again increased his punch outpur and becam a little more aggressive rocking the American several times with his overhand lefts. Round eleven proved to be a tiny renaissence for an overseas import but the last stanza was once again slightly in Ukrainian's favour.

After twelve rounds of exciting action, all three judges had it for "The Tiger" Bursak: 118-111, 118-111 and 119-110. BoxingScene saw it a notch closer: 117-111. Britain's Micky Vann was the third man in the ring.

Undercard results from "Meteor" palace of sports in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine:

Big Ukrainian heavyweight Andriy Rudenko (19-0, 12 KOs) had little problems with American Jason Barnett (12-12, 6 KOs) stopping him in two one-sided rounds. KO2 win for Rudenko, who has stood in pairs with Wladimir Klitschko in preparation for this particular fight.

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Highly ranked (WBC #7, WBA #8, WBO #13 and IBF #15) light heavyweight Vitaly Rusal (27-1, 20 KOs) proved he isn't yet ready to take over world-class opponents as he struggled mightly in an eight-round split decision against little-known Georgian George Tevdorshvili (6-3-2, 4 KOs).

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WBO #14 welterweight Valery Brazhnik (24-0-1, 16 KOs) easily got the better of Fayzullo Akhmedov (9-8, 4 KOs) in eight lopsided rounds. Brazhnik floored his Uzbek counterpart in the second round but that amazingly hasn't reflected on judges' scorecards: 80-72 and 80-73 (twice) - for the Ukrainian.

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Junior welterweight powerhouse Serhiy "Professor" Fedchenko (26-1, 13 KOs) came back to his shining self with an impressive drubbing of hugely overmatched Hungarian Ferenc Zold (10-4, 5 KOs). WBO #14 and WBA #15 Fedchenko dropped Zold once in the first and twice in the second. In the third stanza Fedchenko literally hunt his opponent down with a major keft hook ti the liver, which had the Hungerian import down and out.

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Other results:

Olexander Spirko (10-0, 5 KOs) TKO 6 Mamasoli Kmsanbayev (11-5, 4 KOs). Stopped on cuts.
Agali Alyshev (13-5-1, 10 KOs) KO 1 Serhiy Korzhnyy (0-5). Time was 1:24.
Dmytro Semernin (5-0, 3 KOs) KO 1 Denis Tupilenko (2-15). Time was 0:35. Left hook to the liver.