Baku Fires beat Astana Arlans: No tragedy in losing

The champions of the 3rd season the Astana Arlans from Kazakhstan might not be able to get into the semi-finals with the leaders of the B group the Cuba Domadores. The Wolves lost to the Baku Fires, or as some commentators sarcastically noted, “ got burned”. The Baku Fires beat the Astana Arlans 4:1, Tengrinews reports citing Vesti. A new Astana Arlans boxer from the Kazakhstan National Team Iliyas Suleimenov fought against Elvin Mamishzada from the Baku Fires in the flyweight category (-52 kg). Suleimenov started his debut fight with caution and tried to feel out his opponent. The Kazakh boxer threw several precise crosses. Mamishzada ducked down and threw a left hook. The young Wolf missed the classic one-two combo thrown by the Azeri bad boy. Both boxers made great use of the ring. The first round ended in a clinch and the judges gave the round to the Azeri. In the second round Suleimenov got into the game with more vigor. Mamishzada had to get away from the aggressive hooks of the Kazakh boxer. The Azeri boxer fired a left hook, but the Arlan faded away. The second round proved to be full of intense moments. Suleimenov got away from Mamishzade’s attacks and threw some counterpunches. The judges gave the second round to Suleimenov. In the following round, the Kazakh boxer became more active and threw a lot of punches. Mamishzada slowed down but kept his hands down to provoke the Arlan. In the third round Suleimenov won with 10 points from all judges. As the fight progressed the stamina of both boxer’s was wearing down. Their defense was low and the boxers focused on getting more hits on the opponent. Mamishzada won the 4th round. In the deciding final round, Suleimenov was faster and threw some precise straights and one-two combos. The Azeri boxer clinched the Arlan most of the time instead of allowing the steady attacks. Despite the vigor and the technical boxing of Kazakh boxer and the clinching of the Azeri, the judges gave the last round and the first fight of the night to Elvin Mamishzada of the Baku Fires. The captain of the Alpha wolves Samat Bashenov met Baku Fires Albert Selimov in the lightweight category (-60kg). Both boxers started the first round cautiously. Selimov showed great footwork and shortened the distance to land some quick punches. Bashenov kept steady and focused on crosses. The judges gave 10:9, 10:9, 10:9 in Selimov’s favor. In the following round the captain of the Arlans landed body shots. Selimov tried clinching Bashenov but the Kazakh boxer pushed away. In the second part of the round, the Baku Fires boxer showed more speed and precision than Bashenov. The second round unanimously was given to Selimov again. In the third round Selimov tried an upper cut, but Bashenov did not let it hit his chin and slipped away. Despite some sleek duck downs and getting away from the straights of the Baku Fires boxer, the southpaw Kazakh got more punches than he landed on the opponent. Losing three rounds Bashenov needed to TKO his opponent to win the bout. Selimov feeling the determination of the Kazakh boxer made use of the ring and showed some good footwork. Bashenov managed several counter punches. The judges unanimously gave the 4th and the 5th round to Selimov with 10:9, 10:9, 10:9. The overall score was 2:0 in favor of the Baku Fires. Meirim Nursultanov had an impressive fight with Yauheni Ramashkevich of the Baku Fires. Both welterweight (-69kg) boxers did not hesitate to get into aggressive attacks. Nursultanov started the first round with confidence and precision. Ramashkevich was eager to impose his boxing on Nursultanov but was not ready for the counter attacks of the young Wolf. Despite the clear dominance of the Kazakh boxer, the judges who seemed to be leaning towards the home team gave only 10:9, 10:9 and 9:10 in favor of Nursultanov. Ramashkevich did some clinching in the second round and got a warning from the referee for putting his head down. Bringing the fight to a close range, the bad boy from the Baku Fires clinched Nursultanov and started pushing the Kazakh to the ropes. The Arlan tried getting away from the clinch, but stumbled and his glove touched the ring. The referee gave a warning to Ramashkevich one more time. Round 2 ended with Nursultanov’s win (9:10, 10:9, 10:9). The young Arlan was steady in the following round and landed some precise straights on Ramashkevich. But the judges probably did not see Nursultanov’s punches that made a solid connection and gave the round to the Baku Fires boxer who continually clinched the Kazakh and did not land that many punches. In the fourth round Nursultanov had some good one-two combinations. The Kazakh boxer tried to stick to his technical boxing despite the crooked boxing of the Azerbaijani boxer. Winning miraculously another round, Ramashkevich continued to clinch Nursultanov and tried to swing some uppercuts. In the final round Ramashkevich clinched Nursultanov right after the Kazakh’s attacks. This did not give the Arlan a room to through his classic one-two combos and straights. The home boxer was clearly in favor of the judges as they again gave Ramashkevich the win over more technical and graceful Nursultanov. The Astana Arlans was loosing to the Baku Fires 0:3. Ehsan Rouzbakhani, the Iranian Arlan got in the ring to bring justice and fight against Samir Magomedov of the Baku Fires in the light heavyweight category (-81kg). The Arlan was clearly aiming to KO the Azeri and threw some great power jabs. The previous bouts showed that winning the home team on points was a shady thing to do. Rouzbakhani aimed to outclass the Azeri with an undoubtful KO. The judges gave the first round to Magomedov despite the clear dominance of the Arlan. In the second round, Rouzbakhani to avoid the constant clinching of Magomedov tried to keep him at a distance. He threw some clean jabs. On the 2:12 of the second round angered by the constant clinching, Rouzbakhani knock Magomedov downed. After 15 seconds, Magomedov’s glove hit the floor, Rouzbakhani hit the Azeri and the referee announced another knockdown. The referee took one point from the Iranian Arlan for hitting the Azeri boxer. The warning of the referee and the roar of the Baku Fires fans ignited Rouzbakhani to TKO Magomedov. The passionate Iranian set the overall score to 1:3. In the super heavyweight category (+91 kg), the Astana Arlans boxer Ruslan Myrsataev fought against Haji Murtazaliev from the Baku Fires. The heavy built Myrsatayev kept low and tried to reach Murtazaliev with some side jabs. Murtazaliev got away from the most of the punches of the experienced Arlan with counter attacks. Myrsatayev stumbled, but regained his stance right away. The judges gave 10:9, 10:9, 9:10 in favor of the Baku Fires boxer. In the second round, Myrsataev started clinching the Azeri boxer. Cautious Murtazaliev tried to keep the distance. The Arlan throws some impressive counter attacks, but the Baku Fires bad boy landed more precise punches in the second round. Murtazaliev unanimously won the second round. In the following round, the Azeri boxer showcased impressive and quick boxing. The Kazakh boxer had several successful punches, but did not get near knocking down the Azeri though he was clearly aiming for the head of the opponent. After losing the third round, the Arlan needed something impressive. Unfortunately for the Astana Arlans there were no impressive moments in the super heavyweights bout after that. Myrsatayev’s jabs did not reach the fast Azeri. In the end, Murtazaliev brought another win to his team and the final score of the night to 4:1. The superheavyweight Arlan lost his fight. The Director of the Astana Arlans Bolat Mankenov commented on the bout against the Baku Fires. “We still have questions about two bouts (the fights of Suleimenov and Nursultanov), but all in all, our boxers lost by their tactics. Our boxers got wound up though we warned them that Azerbaijani tend to impose their own boxing,” Mankenov commented. According to the Alpha Wolf of the boxing club Mankenov, there is no tragedy in the loss. He is positive that the boxers will learn much from the fights after watching their own fights on the video. “We have four more fights before the semi finals and we are preparing for them as they are very important,” Mankenov said. After the controversial fight between the Cuba Domadores and the Astana Arlans there were voices of discontent. The fight with the Baku Fires makes one start thinking if the judging is even transparent in the WSB this season. Now the only thing the Kazakh wolves have to do is aim at the jaws and KO their opponents leaving no room for speculations. The next fight takes place in Almaty on February 1, against the Russian Boxing Team.