Jan
9
By Alexey Sukachev
Centro Deportivo Boxing Unitres in Picahna, Spain – After a tedious and prolonged undercard, fans in Picahna, Spain, were blood-thirsty and eagerly waiting for supreme, mano-a-mano brawling in the main event. Supreme brawling was exactly what they’ve got in a phone booth shootout between former IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich and brave Mexican journeyman Jesus Galicia. After ten rounds of non-stop action in a headliner of the show, co-promoted by Yuri Fedorov of Empire Sport and Elvira Bonias of Chute Boxing, scores were tallied and El Ruso-Mexicano was declared the winner on a majority decision.
Galicia, 28, is known best for his all-out, take-no-prisoners style of rumbling. It cost his a number of losses in the past, some of them via quick kayos, but he also got some sound wins, including those over countrymen Jesus Ruiz, Romulo Koasicha (both former world title challengers in 2015), Arturo Santos Reyes and late Oscar Gonzalez (who has sadly passed away after his loss to Galicia). Following his reputation, Galicia immediately jumped on Gradovich, and the IBF #6 ranked featherweight didn’t take any time to man himself up, willing accepting the challenge.
Both brawled at will for the first four rounds. Galicia was more active, throwing more and possibly landing more and at various angles, while Gradovich was more effective but with lower punch output. A cut was opened over the Mexican’s right eye after the second round. It never really bothered Galicia as he continued all-action performance.
In the fifth round, Gradovich made tiny adjustments, proposed by his head coach Robert Garcia, adding body punches and also some head movement to take less punishment. Still the bout was fought in close quarters with both boxers trying to dominate. Galicia was dangerous but Gradovich, 29, was one who pressed the action. Both continued to get clipped by big shots and both took them well and never wilted under fire. This slugfests continued at a slowly decreasing pace right to the final bell.
At the end, one judge saw it even: 96-96. The other two favored the Russian: 99-93 and 96-94, while BoxingScene was in agreement with the latter score.
Gradovich is now 21-1-1, 9 KOs, but he hasn’t make any improvements since his loss to Lee Selby, still being a very much one-dimensional fighter. Galicia, his reputation restored, goes down to 13-9-1, 8 KOs, a record which doesn’t fully reflect his skills.
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In a battle of two lions, Russian welterweight Aslanbek “The Lion” Kozaev (27-2-1, 7 KOs) barely got a workmanlike eight-round decision over Frenchman Renald “The Lion” Garrido (15-13-1) with a majority decision. Scores were 76-76, 77-76 and 77-75 – for Kozaev, who was just 1-2 in his last three fights over the last two years.
Kozaev looked effective when pressing his opponent but his pressure was based mostly on his physical prowess rather than punching power. As soon as Garrido, 33, started to fire back, Kozaev experienced some problems, specifically with speed and angles, offered by the awkward Frenchman, who is best known for his September upset victory over Bradley Saunders. Garrido lacked power of his own to trouble the Russian and didn’t look consistent enough to be granted a win.
Kozaev, 28, still has tons to learn about. Both of his losses occured when he tried to step up in class – only to lose to both Ray Robinson and Taras Shelestyuk. As for Garrido, he has yet to be stopped in his professional career.
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Russian light heavyweight Sergey Ekimov (14-0, 8 KOs), showed why he is being called “Classic” as he delivered a prolonged beating to stubborn but overmatched Cuban Carlos Mena (4-2, 1 KO), finally stopping him with a single right hand at the very end of round eight.
Ekimov, 30, was very reserved and calm and didn’t waste energy for empty spurts trying to be overly effective while breakin his Cuban opponent down. He took some rounds off barely showing any pressure but still kep Mena at bay with his jab. The Cuban was active and did his best to win but his efforts were fruitless. The end came at about ten seconds before the bell. Mena did get up but was waved off by veteran referee Daniel Van de Viele, as he was visibly shaken and not ready to go on with fighting.
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28-year old super welterweight Sergey Shigashev of Electrostal, Russia, had a very rocky pro debut at the Centro Deportivo Boxing Unitres in Picahna, Spain, as he was barely to overcome tough-as-nails Ukrainian expatriate Ivan Grynyuk (7-6-1, 3 KOs) with a majority decision over six rounds.
Shigahsev started aggressively but then was forced to fight in counter spurts as the former BBU light welterweight champion repelled his charge and began delivering heat of his own. Grynyuk, 24, lacked punching power and precision while Shigashev was effective in close quarters but saw his jab totally neglected by the Ukrainian. At the end, one judges had it similarly to the BoxingScene – 57-57, while the two others saw it 59-55 and 58-56 – for the Russian battler.
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Evgeny Gradovich 
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