AIBA Youth World Championships 2018

I've rewatched quite a few of the fights from these Championships. A few thoughts: Dzhambulat Bizhamov was definitely the best boxer of the tournament. I really hope he is given his chance to represent Russia at the 2020 Olympics. I see Gold medal potential in him. Russia sometimes doesn't give their best talent the opportunities though, but hopefully they give Bizhamov the chance. Khalokov was good, but he did get pretty sloppy at times. Those two were the best boxers of the tournament in my opinion with Dzhambulat Bizhamov being the best.

Piskunov imo is the best Russian prospect, he can punch like a mofo. I would say Piskunov is better than Popov at this moment. I hope to see both in the pros either way. Don't like when boxers stay in the amateurs too long. We will have to see how all of these boxers adjust to the Seniors next year at the World Championships.

The thing with Popov is that he has been changing his style. Just look at the way he fought when he was a Junior and now. He fought way better when he was younger. He is more flat-footed now. He is still very good and can potentially medal at the Olympics, but changing his style was not a good choice. Making the Russia team at 63kg (they will remove 60kg and move 64kg down) will be tough. It's probably one of the more competitive weight classes in Russia. Russia needs to have some of their younger boxers replace the old ones next year. Not impressed with the current crop of the Senior Russian team. Piskunov imo is the best Russian prospect, he can punch like a mofo.

The thing with Popov is that he has been changing his style. Just look at the way he fought when he was a Junior and now. He fought way better when he was younger. He is more flat-footed now. He is still very good and can potentially medal at the Olympics, but changing his style was not a good choice. Making the Russia team at 63kg (they will remove 60kg and move 64kg down) will be tough. It's probably one of the more competitive weight classes in Russia. Russia needs to have some of their younger boxers replace the old ones next year. Not impressed with the current crop of the Senior Russian team.

The Cuban boxer that beat Popov impressed me, Popov is really good but Piskunov (who beat Popov) is imo a better prospect, regarding the Cuban, it's a shame the he needs to beat Andy Cruz to get the spot and that is not going to happen, Cruz is imo the best amateur in the world and clearly the best Cuban boxer right now.

I think decisions were fair for the majority of the tournament. There was a few decisions didn't agree with, but I don't think I saw a huge robbery. There will always be a lot of close fights in bouts that are scheduled for three rounds. Agreed, the only ones that really didn't sit well with me were the decisions given to Kolesnikov in the semis and the final. Two in a row seems like more than just a coincidence

I think decisions were fair for the majority of the tournament. There was a few decisions didn't agree with, but I don't think I saw a huge robbery. There will always be a lot of close fights in bouts that are scheduled for three rounds.

Dzhambulat Bizhamov of Russia, 69kg, was awarded the Boxer of the Tournament. I can't complain since he was top 3 for me. I would have given it to Khalokov, because he was the only boxer to win all of his fights via unanimous decision, but Bizhamov is not a bad choice. Going to be interesting which of these boxers can make the Senior team for next year.

Agreed with all the decisions regarding the winners of the finals. The cuban boxer that beat Popov looked really sharp to me, i just wish those cubans would keep their hands up more and not rely on reflexes so much I disagreed with a couple today. I thought Togambay certainly beat Kolesnikov at Light Heavy and leant towards Price and Zhakpekov in their respective bouts. Stevens landed some eye-catching overhands, especially in round one, but did often eat a lot of return fire on the way in and out of range too. Bizhamov also started strong but got dragged more and more into Zhakpekov's fight and while he had moments of brilliance throughout I felt that in the second and third rounds Zhakpekov was landing the more punishing shots, especially that bodywork in the third. The Super Heavy fight could've gone on a bit longer too All in the all the finals were pretty entertaining this year, I enjoyed them. Khalokov, Umara, Zhakpekov, Bizhamov and Popov were the most impressive fighters that I saw (I had the last two losing their finals but they still clearly ooze class)

Agreed with all the decisions regarding the winners of the finals. The cuban boxer that beat Popov looked really sharp to me, i just wish those cubans would keep their hands up more and not rely on reflexes so much

Dzhambulat Bizhamov of Russia beat Yermakhan Zhekpekov of Kazakhstan. Pretty impressive performance by Bizhamov. He was just able to out-maneuver Zhekpekov. Bizhamov reminds me a little of Oleg Saitov, 3x Olympic medalist. Russia needed a good Welterweight badly and they may just have him. The Senior Russian team is rather weak, in my opinion, they definitely need to add some of these younger guys to their team. I will watch the rest of the finals later.

Popov and Umara fought earlier this year and Popov won it but Popov I thought was off this tournament, first he had a very close fight with the Thai fighter and after winning a close first round against Umara I thought he got beat to the punch repeatedly the rest of the fight. Aside from his preliminary fight Popov was really flat footed this whole tournament and I thought he was the biggest star. Yeah his performance in the opening bout was electrifying but the ones after never quite lived up to that. It seemed like he was actually sitting on his punches too much, focusing on trying to hurt his opponents rather than simply win. Although that attitude hurt him in this tournament it might help him when he eventually transitions to the pros Umara was very impressive, looked like a vintage Cuban style boxer to me. He'll have to wait for Andy Cruz to change weight class before he gets a place on the A-team I guess

It seems that Russia and Kazakhstan comfortably had the best teams in the tournament but I'm also impressed with Thailand. It's not a nation I typically associate with the amateurs but they've done really well in multiple weight classes. Not overly impressed with the Brits unfortunately, even our possible gold medallist Ivan Price is rather one-dimensional imo. USA not particularly well represented either

Just caught up on today's fights. All of them apart from the Bantams were close, and all of them apart from the Light Flys were entertaining, so it was a nice session of boxing. I don't have any complaints about the decisions either. The MW and HW bouts could be argued either way but there was certainly no robbery. Umara definitely beat Popov in my opinion. I agree that Khalokov probably deserves to be named fighter of the tournament

I want to re-watch all the finals that took place today, but here are my first thoughts. 49kg: Thitisan Panmod of Thailand beat Jean Paul Rivera of Puerto Rico 5-0. Great decision Panmod made Rivera fight his fight and basically controlled all of the fight. 56kg: Abdumalik Khalokov of Uzbekistan beat Vsevolod Shumkov of Russia 5-0. Khalokov landed more often. The fight got a little sloppy at times, but Khalokov was the clear winner. Khalokov has so much raw talent. He could be really good. He just needs to fix a few things. He has to learn how to control himself. It feels like he tries to fight in a rush. He just needs to pick his shots and relax. Needs to keep his hands up and use more upper body movement. He really needs to stop leaning backwards when he is retreating, because he just leaves his head exposed by leaving it up in the air. He also loses balance when he does that. Khalokov is in the short list of the Best Boxers of the Tournament. One of the few boxers that won all his bouts unanimously. 64kg: Idalberto Umara of Cuba beat Ilya Popov of Russia, 3-2. I thought Popov edged it, but he left it too close. AIBA loves Cuban boxers that fight on the back foot. Both landed punches, but I felt Popov was the ring general. Had Umara against the ropes most of the fight and didn't really let him move. Popov needs to throw more straight punches. Some upper body movement wouldn't be bad either. 75kg: Nurbek Oralbay of Kazakhstan beat Daniil Teterev of Russia, 4-1. I definitely want to re-watch this fight. Felt Teterev did enough to win, but it was close. I don't think I was fully paying attention to this fight, so I definitely want a second look. 91kg: Igor Federov of Russia beat Aybek Oralbay of Kazakhstan, 3-2. Another fight I really want a second look at. Felt Oralbay won this one.

Wow, Zhakpekov's KO was brutal. Yeasungnoen looked in a really bad way and there didn't seem to be a doctor on location to have a look at him either Kazakhstan is continuing their tradition of producing great Welterweights. Yeasungnoen isn't even a bad fighter at all, so impressive that Zhakpekov KO'd him like that.

Don't agree with the Kolesnikov vs Pinder result either. It was a cagey fight to be sure but Pinder seemed to land the better shots for me

Wow, Zhakpekov's KO was brutal. Yeasungnoen looked in a really bad way and there didn't seem to be a doctor on location to have a look at him either

Not many stood out in the Semifinals. The only boxers that looked impressive were Abdumalik Khalokov, 56kg, of Uzbekistan and Yermakhan Zhakpekov, 69kg, of Kazakhstan. One of these guys should be Boxer of the Tournament. I would edge it for Khalokov just because I felt his style had a bit more to offer. Dzhambulat Bizhamov of Russia also wasn't bad. He reminds me of Oleg Saitov, 2 time Olympic Gold medalist. Zhakpekov vs. Bizhamov should be a good finals. I felt Makhmud Sabyrkhan, Kazakhstan, beat Jan Rivera, Puerto Rico. Rivera was fighting on the back foot, but failed to do anything offensively. Sabyrkhan cut-off the ring relatively well and landed more often. I don't like that back foot fighters get so much credit. It's almost like people think that just because you are fighting on the back foot means you are out-boxing your opponent. It's complete nonsense. Decisions have been fair for the most part though. I feel like Kazakhstan was very unlucky to not get some decisions I'll just say that.

All done. Thought it was close in first 2, but Tudbury clearly took 3rd. ....Russian took it on cards. Tough for Tud. Will prob think he was hard done by there. Edit: 3/5 judges gave it 3-0 to Russian. 2 had much more reasonable 2-1 cards, with at least the clear 3rd round going to the Englisher. Nice to see Am boxing is as well judged as ever :lol1: Price was fortunate to get the nod over Oliveira so I guess it balances out as far as England is concerned. It was a pretty ugly contest but Oliveira seemed to be picking his punches better and landing cleaner whenever they traded I disagreed with the result of the other Flyweight semi-final too. I thought Stevens struggled with Kattimani's aggression in the last two rounds and ate a lot of big shots