Sergey Vasilievich Kuzmin vs. José German García Montes & Alexey Mazur vs. Carlos Daniel Córdoba RBR

Round 4

Kuzmin picking up the aggression now, pairing every jab with a heavy overhand right. García circles away, then slips jabs with head movement for as long as he can before Kuzmin either traps him on the ropes or forces the Mexican to dive in for a clinch, head lowered. Kuzmin looks very disinterested, treating García like a sparring partner, hands down, picking spots with a jab. García's face bloodied up from mulitple spots (I think from a mix of fouls on the inside and clean blows).

10-9 Kuzmin

40-36 Kuzmin

 

Round 5

García is looking ragged and desperate now, ducking in behind a high guard and weaving side to side in anticipation of Kuzmin's jab without even seeing a feint of it, and hurling big awkward hooks from either side, nothing landing as he falls in on Kuzmin. Things settle down into a rhythm with each circling at medium-long range, then Kuzmin starts to skeet-shot with a heavy 1-2. Lengthy periods of inactivity just staring at one another. Kuzmin dancing around, light on his toes, flab aflutter, flicking jabs off the hip, looking sort of like a bald Tyson Fury.

10-9 Kuzmin

50-45 Kuzmin

 

At this point I don't see a path to victory for García outside KO.

...and Kuzmin to my knowledge has never been down save the once, against Hunter?

 

Round 6

García is winded. Kuzmin warned for straying low. García flurrying in, arms stuck in molasses, Kuzmin with slick defense while keeping his feet planted, countering with stiff backhanded jabs on the mouth. Between the cuts and the one-sidedness of this, García's team may want to pull him even though he is still trying and Kuzmin isn't throwing a lot of power shots.

10-9 Kuzmin

60-54 Kuzmin

 

Round 7

García is very weakly pushing out a jab in multiples, and Kuzmin just faces his palms in to his face, elbows up by his breasts, and marches inside behind the goalposts. García down, slip. Kuzmin jabs his way in and they clinch. Kuzmin steamrolling García until the latter slaps at his sides with hooks and collapses into him. Ref calling for breaks frequently. Both drilling each other with illegal shots behind their ears. Kuzmin slips a lead right from García by skipping laterally on the ball of either foot. Several looping shots from García, with all ducked as Kuzmin bends above the waist in serpentine motions. Kuzmin watching, flicking a jab in García's face now and then.

10-9 Kuzmin

70-63 Kuzmin

 

Round 8

García is actually coming on a bit, hacking away up top as Kuzmin shells up and then hugs to stall. Kuzmin seemed to be taking at least the beginning of the round off to cruise and wasn't expecting that onslaught. They brawl in the middle of the ring and García gets in some flush hooks. Kuzmin looks concerned and is puffing hard, but he still has that cocky posture and is throwing jabs off the lead hip after they separate. García now catching the jabs in his open left mitt. Kuzmin advances, but García leans away from an uppercut to dodge it. Messy clinch, broken up by the ref. Every time they both start firing madly it ends up in a rough clinch, but eventually one of those bombs might land in either direction. The ref pauses with like 15 seconds on the clock to have the doc come on the apron to check García's cut. He's cleared to continue. Time in, they rumble for a few seconds and then exchange jabs until the bell - OH DAMN! Counter straight right left hook combo from Kuzmin puts García down as he's lurching off the ropes to attack!

10-8 Kuzmin (it was a 10-9 García round until the very last moment)

80-71 Kuzmin

 

The corner yanks him. RTD8!

 

Weirdly, as fat as he looked, today was actually the second lightest Kuzmin has ever weighed in for a pro bout (just ¾lb more than when he fought Mansour)

Guess he lost some muscle mass and replaced it with cellulose.

 

That knockdown was nice