Boxing: Astana Arlans on a winning streak, again

Kazakhstan's Astana Arlans, the WSB 2013 Champions, have burst the 4th season open with a solid 4:1 win over Baku Fires from Azerbaijan. As those in the ring put it, "it’s a new season with new rules and new faces", Tengrinews reports. The Azeri came in with a seemingly stronger and more experienced team, but the debutants of the Astana Wolves exceeded the expectations of even their own chief coach Sergei Korchinskiy. “The result is great, and to tell the truth I didn't expect it. I thought we’d win 3:2. We have many debutants this seasons, and the fact that two out of three won in their first fights is already a good sign,” said Korchinskiy after the bouts. The crowd started cheering wildly when the Light Flyweight debutant of the Alpha Wolves Anvar Muzaparov stepped into the ring. But despite the strong fan base and a rapid start, Muzaparov couldn't keep up in the final rounds after two knockdowns by Khamza Nametov from Azerbaijan. Southpaw Nametov’s bloodied gloves nailed Muzaparov with a straight left. Muzaparov, however, displayed praiseworthy perseverance till the final round. His loss gave a loosing start to his team, but also a misleading hope for easy victory to his rivals. The Bantamweight Bagdat Alimbetov from Kazakhstan was clearly set to change things for Astana Arlan and kept the blows coming through to his 7th win against the Azeri debutant Magomed Gurbanov. “During the bout it seemed that the Azeri threw a lot more shots, though the Kazakh threw more accurate and harder ones,” reports the WSB official website. In the third bout of the boxing night Kazakhstan's Askhat Ualikhanov came against Osman Aliyev. The Kazakhstan boxer grabbed the initiative from the first seconds of the -64kg fight. The judges were unanimous about his victory in the first three rounds. However, in the fourth round Aliyev make a daring attempted to tilt the scale back, but failed and in the end Ualikhanov brought Astana Arlans forward for the first time that night. In the highly anticipated fight between the Ukrainian boxing legend Sergei Derevyanchenko and the experienced Azeri fighter Mikalai Vesialou, the unstoppable Arlan added the 5th TKO to his record and his 19th win in WSB. Derevyanchenko’s powerful persistent punching in the 4th round brought Vesalou to two eight counts one after another. The veteran of the Kazakhstan team had a great start of the season. Another debutant of the season Heavyweight Vasilii Levit made the crowd go wild. His opponent was a veteran of the previous three seasons with 7 wins and 1 TKO. Levit won over Abdulkadir Abdullayev and reminded us of an expression nailed by a WSB reporter, "A dog’s head on a pup’s shoulders”. The fans witnessing the great start of the season for Astana Arlans this Friday loudly expressed their support to the team. It seemed that the Wolves could almost hear the little boy’s overjoyed cheering from the fifth row of the parterre: “Go Vasilii, Go! You are strong, Vasili!” On November 23 Astana Arlans from Kazakhstan will stand up against Russian Boxing Team. Anvar Muzaparov vs Khamza Nametov Bagdat Alimbetov vs Magomed Gurbanov Askhat Ualikhanov vs Osman Aliyev Sergei Derevyanchenko vs Mikalai Vesialou Vasilii Levit vs Abdulkadir Abdullayev