SANTA YNEZ, California – Wasting no time and delivering no respect to his opponent is a strategy that ideally suits light heavyweight Umar Dzambekov.
Uncorking a second-round uppercut with one second remaining, Dzambekov knocked out Artem Brusov and improved to 13-0 with nine knockouts Friday night here at Chumash Casino Resort.
Dzambekov, coming off a more thoughtful and difficult bout in June against veteran former title challenger Roamer Alexis Angulo, immediately unveiled a rapid power punch that rocked Brusov three times in the first round, giving the southpaw a convincing early advantage that was missing last time out.
“My last opponent knew how to deal with those shots. He was experienced,” Dzambekov told BoxingScene after the bout. “These were shots I was preparing to land – and they landed.”
At 27 and on the brink of a career move from fight promoter Tom Loeffler’s 360 Promotions to Dana White and Turki Alalshikh’s Zuffa Boxing, which starts on Paramount+ in January, Dzambekov perfectly timed his improvement under trainer Marvin Somodio.
Vienna’s Dzambekov said even though he had hurt Russia’s Brusov, 13-2 (12 KOs), earlier, the knockout blow came as Brusov likely “underestimated my power … the most dangerous punches are the ones you don’t see coming, and that was one of them.”
Dzambekov agreed he can build a reputation as a destructive force in the division by throwing his power punches without restraint or hesitation.
“I’d say so,” he said.
He said fighting for Zuffa Boxing “is going to be big” and boost his prominence, something he sought to do without the millions of dollars in promotion that are coming.
“I want to go viral every day, and there’s no better way to do so than with a knockout,” he said.
“I’m learning. I’m getting better.”
In the co-main event, junior bantamweight Daniel “Chucky” Barrera belted opponent Mario Hernandez in the defining sequences, outshining Hernandez’s inside body work en route to a unanimous decision victory by scores of 80-72, 79-73, 77-75 in the eight-round bout.
Barrera’s effective counterpunching shined, especially in the sixth round.
Barrera, 10-1-1 (4 KOs), was willing to take a few Hernandez punches in order to capitalize on openings exposed by his foe’s movement.
Although Hernandez, 13-7-1 (4 KOs), may have led in the race for most body punches, it was Barrera, of Eastvale, California, who impressed by being unaffected by the repetition and unloading the more damaging shots that impressed the crowd.
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
