By Alexey Sukachev
Former IBF super flyweight king Dmitry Kirillov (30-4-1, 10 KOs), the first Russian to capture a major boxing title at home, made his successful return after almost five years of retirement, by stopping professional trialhorse Alexander Saltykov (8-28-3, 5 KOs), yesterday at the Giant Hall of Casino Conti in St. Petersburg, Russia. Kirillov, 34, was reasonably rusty after a long lay-off but gradually outboxed his experienced (and familiar) opponent until Saltykov retired on his stool between rounds four and five, citing an injury. This bout was fought at super bantamweight limit.
Kirillov was earlier scheduled to fight a better opponent in 5-2 Ukrainian Ruslan Berchuk, but the latter disappeared mysteriously just a day or two before the fight. Another blow to the card – a much bigger one – was suffered when it has got known that former WBC super featherweight champion Vitaliy Tajbert would be no show as well. Finally, Uzbek light middleweight power hitter Ulugbek Buribaev (11-0, 10 KOs) also missed the show – according to some accounts, he chose to fight at home at this date, and he was accompanied by the aforementioned Berchuk.
Saving the show for local fans and promoter Sergey Mitchnik were two fighters of the Ural Boxing Promotions and Pushka Promotions. Konstantin Ponomarev, 20, improved to 20-0, 10 KOs, outpointing rugged Estonian veteran Sergey Melis (20-13, 7 KOs) unanimously and widely over eight at the middleweight limit. Also, David Avanesyan (14-1-1, 7 KOs) erased bad memories of his latest draw with undefeated prospect Alsanbek Kozaev by pummeling capable Ukrainian crowd-pleaser Bogdan Protsyshyn (7-7, 2 KOs) into a stoppage loss in the third round.
Other Results:
Evgueny Orlov (13-12-1, 9 KOs) UD 6 Mikhail Cherkas (1-2)
Alexander Vasilyev (17-17-2, 8 KOs) D 4 Sedrak Agagulyan (1-25-1)
Felix Amoev (5-1, 3 KOs) UD 4 Tagir Rzaev (7-52-1, 2 KOs)
Andrey Ayfan (1-1) UD 4 Fedor Lashin (0-1)
Evguenia Zablotskaya (5-9, 2 KOs) UD 4 Ksenia Maksimova (0-1)
