Dmitry Alexandrovich "Russian Hammer" Kudryashov vs. Samuel David "Hillbilly Hammer" Shewmaker, 4/27

The Hammerbowl went down yesterday.

...quietly, to virtually no fanfare, literally not a single post about it on this forum and scantly mentioned among the internet boxing community in general.

Hell, there was a free legal international stream up on Ushatayka's channel on YouTube and everything, but even the BoxRec editors haven't bothered adding the card yet, nearly 24 hours after the fact. I was going to make a RBR, but after work actually wound up taking an involuntary two hour siesta when I lay down to squeeze in an episode of the last season Better Call Saul. Ya boy's getting old...

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Kudryashov saw his first action of 2023, seven months removed from dropping a wide UD to countryman Soslan Sultanguseinovich Asbarov, in The Cobra's sophomore pro effort. With this crushing victory over the Ozark native and bareknuckle star, he snaps his current losing streak at just 1. Last time, in 2021, he lost a deuce on the spin versus a pair of fellow Russians named Evgeny (namely Romanov and Tischenko, both of whom, like Asbarov, pitched a shutout or near-shutout across the judges' cards).

As for Shewmaker, getting KO1ed here, out cold within ninety seconds of the opening bell, is zero percent surprising. I am, in fact, a little impressed that he stood up to a few powerful shots from the once-upon-a-time cruiserweight #1 contender (now parading about 50lb north of that division's limit). The very first moment they met in the center of the ring a left hook from Kudryashov - thrown full power but with poor gauging of distance - grazed the burly Midwesterner. Not only did the American brawler shake off that blow, he proceeded to move around his opponent with a high guard that let him absorb some heavy right hand leads to body and head - and got in some right crosses and 1-2s himself, the first sequence causing a ring-rusty Kudryashov to misjudge how much of his weight the ropes would carry as he sank back into them, nearly tumbling out in an embarrassing blunder, and later a few more connected flush on the chin making the Russian wince and jog away. Of course, he rebounded immediately with a left rip on the liver that brought Shewmaker's guard down and precipitated his doom in the big crossfire of right hands that followed.

Respect to the Hillbilly Hammer; he gave it an honest go and was probably just a single lucky shot away from scoring a Cinderella Man upset that would've boosted his earnings potential jobbing to prospects for at least the rest of his late thirties and early forties. He'll likely never again have a chance as good as this "who lands first" shootout to actually rack up a victory over a major name in the sport, though.

Kudryashov is hardly a natural fit at HW - noticeably even slower of foot and hittable as ever, and while his power had carried up it's a bit short of its lethal potency at 200lbs. I think if anything he should be targeting more around the bridgerweight limit - not to say he shouldn't campaign at heavyweight, as that's more lucrative (and, you know, a real weight class recognized by every org) but he can't be ploddind around 50 whole pounds over his prime weight. Split the difference and say 225ish, if he can make it, and he might eke out a living as fringe contender or gatekeeper, battering upper shelf journeymen and exposing overhyped youngsters. Wild that he was such a forum darling at one point and now is reduced to none of us so much as uttering a peep about him.

 

Back on April 6th?
https://www.boxingforum24.com/search/74467829/?q=Kudryashov&o=date&c[node]=6

Yeah, but I meant there wasn't a word about it fight week, let alone the day of.

It was a guaranteed fun quick firefight on paper, too (no way it could have gone more than a couple rounds, tops, in any timeline), can't believe I slept through it.

 

Promoters will keep using him for as long as he seems dangerous (I think he's already well on his way to shot now, or at the very least badly ill-suited to how much extra weight he's carrying nowadays) but if they're smart they'll only match him with other "glass cannons" so that he's always in a fun & unpredictable duel.

Fans will quickly tire of seeing him take lopsided points defeats like his last three.

 

Peach of a kayo, though. ^^^

Pity not many saw it.

 

That's why I was shocked nobody wanted to see him potentially knock the block off this BKB doofus (think a cross between Kimbo Slice and Tank Abbott, for the uninitiated), which he did make good on.

Here's the zero-attention-span version for those who can't sit through 90 seconds of the video embedded in the OP.

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None. The famous driver spells his name the German traditional way Schumacher, which makes sense as he's from Hürth. Very little chance there's any common ancestor within the last several generations with a Shewmaker from Missouri.