Ainiwaer Yilixiati vs. Ryosuke Maruki & Wuzhati Nuerlang vs. Said Juma Mbwela RBR

Round 6

Yilixiati hammering away now with double left hooks spring-loaded off the lead hip with a slight jump up at Maruki. His jabs are no longer reaching - and barely even present, as Maruki has played keep-away long enough to make Yilixiati question the worth of wasting time snapping them out. Yilixiati still pressing but with growing disinterest as Maruki remains negative, occasionally getting jaw-jacked by a short left hook when he slows down but quick to scramble, working his legs overtime.

10-9 Yilixiati

60-53 Yilixiati

 

This is for the WBC ABC middleweight title. Shouldn't we have gotten open scoring by now?

 

Round 7

Yilixiati is now dropping into a crouch, loading up and firing a right hand directly into Muraki's stomach. He repeats this over and over until Maruki starts to circle away. Maruki now seems to realize Yilixiati's fatigue is only allowing him to attack in short bursts, and grows bold, stepping in with jabs and overhand rights of his own. Big counter 1-2 by Yilixiati stuns Maruki and regains some respect before the bell.

10-9 Yilixiati

70-62 Yilixiati

 

To be fair, that blitz against Watanabe is his only stoppage loss.

 

Round 8

Yilixiati keeps taking little nibbles with the corkscrew right hand on the body and then resetting into a low pose on the outside. Maruki now comes forward and bops Yilixiati across the face with a couple of heavy rights, and Yilixiati seems a little shaken! Maruki then runs short on ideas and Yilixiati takes advantage of him just standing directly in front of him, finding a second wind to knife out some hard backhanded jabs into his face and bang the body. They flurry into a clinch at the bell and there's an incidental rabbit punch by Maruki, at which Yilixiati grins.

10-9 Yilixiati, close (first genuinely close round of the fight)

80-71 Yilixiati

 

Round 9

Yilixiati keeps faking the jab, throwing it halfway up at Maruki from its resting position on his left hip, looking more as if he's using a shake-weight than boxing tbh. Maruki paws with his own jab mostly just to disrupt Yilixiati's. They come together and Maruki gets judo-tossed onto the canvas accidentally. Yilixiati following Maruki around, both with their arms down. Yilixiati breathing heavily. At one point Maruki keeps drifting away from him several paces and Yilixiati just watches him wistfully, chest heaving as he sighs deeply before continuing. Yilixiati clearly wishing Maruki would make things easier for him by just standing pat and coming to fight. Yilixiati does manage to crack Maruki with a couple of sneaky high right hands on the nose as they're swapping jabs, and besides is scoring enough to win the frame with intermittent body touches.

10-9 Yilixiati

90-80 Yilixiati

 

Yilixiati's performance really has been kind of ...petulant, is the word. A few rounds in he seemed to not like the fact that Maruki was going to make things difficult so in response, instead of finding a new gear, he decided to give just 60-70% effort and cruise the rest of the way. Kind of disappointing.

 

Round 10

Low blow from Yilixiati. Lots of short chopping rights scoring for Yilixiati as they clonk together in frequent violent clinches (often involving elbows in each other's teeth as they put their arms up instinctively), playing bumper-cars. Yilixiati the only man throwing, until the final minute, when Maruki begins to lump in some right upper-hooks against the waistband en route to yet more clinches. They spend the final thirty seconds warily circling each other with a full sedan's length between them. Maruki sends a bit of sweat flying off Yilixiati's forelock with a jab.

10-9 Yilixiati

100-89 Yilixiati

 

You could maybe find a round or two for Maruki.

 

If the other belt on the line were a major org I'd have assumed the same, but who the hell are the IBO to supersede WBC rules? But yeah, idk, could be.

 

Official cards:

hey, shocker, all in Chinese...

UD for Yilixiati