Nicholson Poulard vs. Anton Sjomkin RBR

This is coming up live on www.boxingchannel.tv

Ghislain Maduma just won a ten round UD over tricky spoiler Pedro Navarrette. 100-89 on all three cards. You didn't miss anything if you were watching the SMW bout on FNF instead. I was keeping an eye on it between rounds of George vs. Miranda and it was mostly Maduma just keeping busy without much of a willing target.

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Main event.

 

This is for, I think, the Canadian light heavyweight title?

Or a lesser regional one.

 

Round 1

Poulard works a right hand through the guard past his steady left jab. Sjomkin stays upright and jabs while stepping to the left. Straight shots by Sjomkin, stiffly leaning back with his neck rigid. Poulard comes crashing over the top with a hard right hand to the top of the head. Another BIG RIGHT HAND AT THE BELL and Sjomkin is down hard. He beats the count at six and is lucky the round is over.

10-8 Poulard

 

Round 2

Poulard jabs to the body and then slams up high with another big right hand, but Sjomkin is able to seesaw above the waist and avoid the brunt of it. Sjomkin skitters back after Poulard gets inside and starts to work the body. Sjomkin jabs high, scoring as Poulard approaches with a vague impression of a Philly shell. Poulard switches to a traditional high guard and comes forward, blocking jabs. Big right hand by Poulard pushing Sjomkin to the ropes. HARD thudding right by Poulard. Sjomkin's head is rocked back but he recovers and slides his way off the ropes. Good right hand by Sjomkin at the bell.

10-9 Poulard

20-17 Poulard

 

Poulard is a sparring partner of Jean Pascal and Lucian Bute.

With the former he's supposedly had some pretty hot and heavy sessions.

 

Round 3

Hard right hands by Poulard, in methodical repetition. Not lightning quick but forceful and placed well. Sjomkin is hurt, backing up. Big left hook by Poulard, landing on the eye socket. Sjomkin down, clutching at his face and OUT FOR THE COUNT!

KO3!!

 

A thumb to the cornea may have contributed to that, but the punch was legal.

 

Interesting! :good Didn't know that. Thanks.

He's actually pretty good. Not great, nowhere near Jean's level, but he could maybe contend in a weak LHW division. Sooner is probably better than later, both due to his age and the fact that young monsters like Sullivan Barrera, Sergey Kovalev, and Dustin Dirks are clawing their way up.

He also has a lot more power than his low % of stoppage wins might suggest, having dropped Demers and absolutely thrashed Contreras before the latter nearly upset Enrique Ornelas. Not to toot my horn, but I actually knew he'd get rid of Sjomkin on the early side and was more excited to see him than the unbeaten Congolese guy who beat Navarrete. (No offense to the Estonian, but his robotic Euro style wasn't built to last against an awkward bruiser like Poulard...)

That is why I bothered making this thread to cover it when I saw that ESPN2 FNF had a meaningless swing bout on between the co-feature and main event...especially since that swing bout looked destined to go the full 4-round distance as it did and eat up enough time for Poulard to get the job done. No way was it in danger of going the full ten and overlapping with Molina vs. Frias at all.

This was rather clever matchmaking, letting Poulard impress at home and in front of a (limited, due to competition with FNF and boxingchannel.tv still not being that widely known or promoted) worldwide audience.

 

Oh ****, apparently Poulard could be on deck for a world title! :shock:

It seems Shumenov vs. Poulard (WBA #6) is on the table.

2nd weakest titlist, IMO, behind Cleverly. Cloud and Dawson are the ones to steer clear of, if you're on Poulard's level. (and of course Kessler, whose risk/reward ratio is just horrible - even though he's past his best - with him only holding a "Silver" title and still being quite formidable..)

 

Wow, Froch... :think It's been 3 years since Nicholson weighed under the SMW limit. It might be a bigger payday to challenge Froch, but the wiser course of action might be Shumenov since he'd have a stronger chance of actually securing a championship - and avoiding a far more serious beating than his little brother received from the Cobra. (as Froch is better than Shumenov, plus the potential weight drain issue for the 34-year-old..)

 

What did you think of Maduma vs. Navarrete, Drew? Were you pulling double duty (or at least 1-and-a-half duty) while George vs. Miranda was on as well?

Was I too harsh on it and on Maduma, calling it a skippable match and him an underwhelming talent? It's just that I've seen others do better against Pedro, and the action seemed very monotonous when compared literally side-by-side with the canned hunt on ESPN2.

Personally I think Poulard has more upside and more of an outside chance of sniffing glory despite having several years on Maduma, and is the more exciting fighter and powerful puncher despite having a lower stoppage rate.