Former world title challenger Walter Kautondokwa and his team are still under the influence of the surprisingly one-sided scoring against them last Saturday in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The hard-hitting Namibian traveled all the way to the heart of Asia to take the role of the visitor in a much-anticipated battle between top-rated middleweight contenders against unbeaten Kazakh Kanat Islam for the WBO International title.

Islam (27-0, 21 KOs) started the fight better and even dropped his taller foe during a heated exchange of left hooks in the fifth stanza. Kautondokwa (18-2, 17 KOs), however, came back in the sixth and took control of the second half of the fight. As the rounds went by, Islam became more and more inactive, and by round nine, he only had enough energy left for holding and desperately trying to get out of harm’s way.