Saúl "El Fénix Asesino" Becerra Gil (aka Saúl Farah) - still REFUSING to "fade into Bolivian"...

He's one never-say-die glass-cannon road-warrior. He debuted in 2004 and has since done nothing but destroy tomato cans and get destroyed by anybody else he steps in with. Of his nearly two dozen losses, the majority are by KO with over a dozen coming inside 3 rounds. Similarly, of his 65 victories he took 57 by KO, with virtually all but a handful of them (46 total, I just counted) being under-nine-minute blitzkriegs. Talk about someone during whose matches you don't want to blink!

He is being fed to an unbeaten Azerbaijani-Turkish heavyweight prospect in the 6-rounder main event of a German Titov card in Ekaterinburg on Wednesday. Zamig Atakishiyev is 4-0-1 (2) and has fought 21 professional rounds - six percent as many as Farah. He's a crossover from kickboxing, where he was a 91kg European champion. His record in that sport was 25-8-1-1 (10), and he did have one loss by knockout but it was recorded as being from a leg kick...so no immediate worries about his jaw being made of glass. If he can't take a licking, he will get exposed by Mr. Truth Serum, the Phoenix Assassin. If he can, and has a shred of real power of his own, he'll deal Farah his eighteenth stoppage defeat.

I'm hoping there's a stream for this juicy train wreck. Come on Titov!

 

Here's the crazy butterball slugger nine years ago, giving up 8" of height against the gratuitously-tatted six-and-a-half-foot giant Argentine gatekeeper Gonzalo Omar "El Patón" Basile (weighing a still today career-high 269¾lbs), after having spent the bulk of the previous 5 years at the beginning of his career at cruiser but in just a few months blowing up to a robust 230½lbs:

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He didn't actually embarrass himself too badly, considering the size disparity. I'd be down to see a rematch now that Basile is deep into his forties (and has been on the receiving end of a few more annihilation squash matches in the intervening years)

 

He fought (and was "KO1ed" by) Junlong Zhang recently, which tells me everything I need to know about him: Farah has reached a point in his career where he has just said "**** it" and is willing to partake in fixed/fake fights. I'm convinced that Zhang's record is 100% manufactured; he's the Chinese heavyweight version of Ali Raymi.

So at this point the Phoenix Assassin is just having a laugh, cashing a few more checks while he's still lucid. In other words, he isn't kidding himself about his career trajectory and has nothing to lose - which is exactly why, if he comes in below 230lbs, he might be dangerous for a guy like Atakishiyev who might be looking past him.

 

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Atakishiyev vs. Farah will indeed be televised on Матч! Боец along with co-main event Vlasyslav Baranov vs. Daulet Talakovich Daukenov scheduled for 6rds at light welterweight...and probably several more bouts.

https://matchtv.ru/live?date=18-04-2018

15:00-18:25
Бокс. «Extra Round 7». Замиг Атакишиев против Саула Фараха. Владислав Баранов против Давлета Даукенова

That's a three hour and twenty-five minute broadcast slot - which isn't enough time for all thirteen bouts on the card (four 6-rounders and nineteen 4-rounders, a total of 60 rounds, or four hours of fights if everything goes the distance) - but certainly can accommodate the bulk of them, all but a couple.

 

I assume times given are in Moscow time (which is 7 hours ahead of EST, in other words a few minutes until 9pm there now...so this card would then be running from 8am-11am EST on Wednesday morning for us); pretty weird they don't specify considering Russia has eleven time zones.

 

A look at the unbeaten Kazakh in the co-main event:

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I actually wonder if Basile mightn't have connected on a lucky clobbering telegraphed right and, indirectly, changed the course of lineal HW title history.

Remember, in 2013-14 we're talking a Fury that was getting put on his ass by tiny USS Cunningham, and wasn't that far removed from having scares on a regular basis (against like 4 journeymen in a row) on his bum tour post-Chisora I.

 

...and, here, at his slick black counter-punching Ukrainian (eat your heart out, Ismayl Sillakh ) opponent:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1uy7cqQgss

 

The weigh-in happened a couple of hours ago...

Zamig Atakishiyev came in at 235¼lbs, Saul Farah 264½. That's a career high for both men.

Daulet Daukenov missed the light welterweight limit by 1½lbs, as did his late substitute opponent Mahsud Jumaev by ¾lbs.

Damn it, what happened to Baranov? I was looking forward to seeing that legitimately interesting match-up; hopefully the whale-watch in the other co-main event has enough action to make up for it.