Almaty, Kazakhstan – 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 Topçakan of the Istanbulls in the second round of the 61kg lightweight contest. Topçakan 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 [Topçakan] 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 Ozgül. 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.