Ali Bagodinoviç Akhmedov - remember the name.

Good stoppage for me. Bad body language and head bouncing side to side tells the story. Good finish nearing the end of the fight.

 

9-0 (7) or 11-0 (9) ...either way, on the right track, should be on American TV in a year.

 

тamaşa!!!

 

I love how cocky Thomas looked heading in, until the opening bell he was kind of smirking at his opponent, as if he was thinking "I'm gonna box circles around this Stan, probably another of these robotic European dudes we've all seen, thinks he's going to rip my head off but won't have a clue what happened when he sees I got that matador game on fleek, slice him up with counters, easy work". Then he started feeling them hands.

By the first knockdown in round 2 you could see his body language completely transformed - he was already deflated and in survival mode. The fact that he lasted as long as he did after that is pretty impressive, actually. He needed to use a lot of very negative (and honestly at times illegal - bowing super low, grabbing Ali's waist, flopping onto the ground face-first after catching legit hooks and passing them off as having been cuffed with rabbit punches, which the ref actually bought somehow) tactics just to do so, and maybe could have been disqualified much earlier (or at least given enough stern warnings or point deductions that he would've been suffered a clean traditional kayo earlier), but this was very good matchmaking for Akhmedov. It gave him several rounds with a guy that knew how to survive and had a modicum of skill (a slickness that was only partially reliant on athleticism) to go along with more than a little mettle, and was stubborn enough to cling on for nearly the entire scheduled distance even though defeat was all but certain for JT from about two minutes in.


AA was just so damn relaxed as he methodically picked apart his victim and beat him the fuck up. So cool to see that much poise in a kid who is the equivalent age of an undergraduate senior. Most guys at 22 can't handle showing up to class with a slight hangover, or cooking themselves a Pop-Tart without almost setting the house on fire and needing to call their mom crying.

 

Akhmedov is a quick study.

 

Hot take: it already seems to me like Akhmedov has a higher ceiling of potential in the pros (and might develop into the bigger threat at light heavyweight to leave a trail of KTFO bodies in his wake even after stepping up to world class level) than Artur Beterbiev, who is seen as the next bogeyman waiting in the wings post-Kovalev, but in whom I've thus far not had a very confident feeling since he turned over, as he may have left some of the best of himself in the amateurs (or is just having an exceptionally hard time with adapting his style into the pro game, for some reason, which seems odd because he always struck everybody as the sort that would make the jump seamlessly)

 

^cone at me.

 

Akhmedov has debuted at #38 in the September edition of the WBC rankings!

He bumps down Canadian unbeaten 13-0 prospect & MMA crossover Ryan Ford, and 15-2-2 (7) Travis Reeves of the USA (who KO1ed Anthony Caputo Smith in ninety seconds), and has eliminated Lionell Thompson from the rankings altogether despite Thompson having a couple of decent consecutive wins (shutout of Donovan George and kayo4 of Steve Lovett).

He is chasing after the likes of Trevor McCumby, Egor Mekhontsev and Ahmed Elbiali, and that's just in the low to mid-high thirties! Light heavyweight is looking fruitful, with plenty of exciting match-ups in the foreseeable horizon.

 

Indeed.

 

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