By Mark Vester
It appears IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko did not receive a new mandatory tonight, as Sultan Ibragimov (19-0-1, 17 KOs) and Ray Austin (24-3-4, 16 KOs) fought to a twelve round draw.
The crowd in the Seminole Hard Rock Arena in Hollywood, Florida, saw both men hit the canvas in what turned out to a be wild fight, which many did not expect it to be.
Ibragimov had Austin hurt in the first round, Austin held on to get out of the round. Ibragimov continued the assault for the next few rounds, including a drilling punch that floored Austin in the fourth round.
After round four, Austin began to use his height and reach advantage to keep the shorter Ibragimov at bay, while winning several of the middle to late rounds. When Ibragimov would rush in, Austin would counter with hard punches.
The countering paid off for Austin, because in the tenth round, Austin caught Ibragimov with a perfect lefthook to the chin and dropped Ibragimov for the first time in his career. Ibragimov was able to shake off the damage and pull himself together to come back and win the final two rounds, including a right hand that put Austin in trouble in the final minute of round twelve.
The scores were 114-112 for Austin, 115-111 for Ibragimov and 113-113 for the draw.
Austin exposed a lot of flaws in Ibragimov, the worst being his inability to get inside a much taller fighter that is using his reach. Ibragimov will have to going to the gym, watch the tape of this fight and correct his mistakes because the next time he might not be so lucky.
