Alexander Besputin vs Radzhab Butaev & Cecilia Brækhus vs Victoria Bustos RBR.

Man if can't look good against a low volume counter puncher who doesn't move that well or cut the ring off very well then he's not that great at adapting. He'll look good against average opposition but that's about it to me.

 

The judges were spot on, I had it 116-112 as well. A great fight! Besputin made the improvements but is still a work in progress, but not by much. He needs a couple more fights against the tough opponents. To me it was one of the best fights this year.

 

Butaev for whatever reason didnt let his hands go. The rds he did he won. Dont know what his problem was but he let himself get outhustled.

 

BTW what was the issue Butaev had with Besputin at the end of the fight. Anyone clarify this?

 

Not sure, I guess it's either Butaev being frustrated with having to chase him in the last round or their rivalry from the amateur days, despite them never meeting in the ams (I don't get it neither)

 

Wonder how far he can go..

 

Alexander Alexandrovich Besputin vs. Radzhab Yusupovich Butaev, 12 rounds @ welterweight


Round 1

Besputin is darting in with jabs and quick-poke lefts on the body as Butaev twirls and sizes him up, biding his time and waiting to catch him with a stiff counter left jab, which he does in glancing fashion here and there. Besputin is using lots of level changes and constant lateral movement, flitting around Butaev and raising a right jab into his face while ducking to conceal his true intentions with a skewering left hand scoring into Butaev's neck on the other side. Besputin moving very well.

10-9 Besputin


Round 2

Besputin is floating high jabs to pin Butaev's gloves to his face and then lightly touching his body with the straight left. Besputin with lots of pit-pat on the outside, crouching and rising and rolling aside in a hyper-kinetic blur. Naught but defense from Butaev as he continues to get the measure of Besputin, his own fists stayed in their holsters as he frequently needs to block and parry the high volume of Besputin. A few isolated jabs from Butaev, mostly just range-finders as Besputin keeps hopping around him. Besputin is scraped with an uppercut on the chest while dancing wide around Butaev, and then ducks a right hook by expertly cricking his neck while circling in close. Butaev feels he's onto something, though, and continues targeting Besputin's midsection with underhanded shots, finding a little more success.

10-9 Besputin

20-18 Besputin


Round 3

Besputin starts with double left hand leads into the brow from outside, springing off his rear heel. Butaev keeps a tight guard caging his face and stays rock-steady, not giving Besputin an inch even while awash in light scoring combinations. Besputin with a rapid but weak jab at the face, just meant to blind his opponent rather than connect. Butaev steps around the jab and plugs an uppercut into Besputin's waistband. Besputin isn't liking the body shots and circles away double-time. Butaev able to catch him with left jabs buzzing the hairline now as Besputin ducks and runs. Besputin popping up those left hand leads from a crouch but many of them slapped down under Butaev's palms. Nice work from Butaev, pressuring behind the left jab and drilling the right hand down into the side of Besputin's skull. More body work from Butaev. Lots of unnecessary movement from Besputin, overthinking it a bit, unraveling in response to Butaev's pressure.

10-9 Butaev

29-28 Besputin


Round 4

They step together and swap heavy body shots, which Besputin soon abandons because that is Butaev's wheelhouse. Besputin resumes circling on his toes and floating light right jabs up top. Nothing getting through. Besputin loops a left at the head but again isn't sitting down on it to give himself a chance to actually slow Butaev down with it. Butaev walks him down, jabbing at the head and then cupping the back of it with his glove to hold Besputin in place while hammering the body. Lots of wasted energy on Besputin's part. Only a minority of is actually serves a purpose in eluding Butaev, and he isn't even doing that consistently. Body shots landing with regularity.

10-9 Butaev (commentator says "very hard to score"; eh, really wasn't.

38-38


Round 5

Besputin is sprinting away from Butaev, unwilling to engage within a pace apart. They duel with high jabs, Besputin's right versus Butaev's left, checking each other in midair. Butaev closes the distance and pecks the guard with the jab and then starts hinging both arms into Besputin's flanks. Butaev sweeps out the right across the brow as Besputin ducks and clusters his fists under his chin. Besputin down, partially a slip and partially the whoosh of wind from Butaev's arms swinging down at him. Butaev is catching most of Besputin's right jabs on his left forearm, turned horizontally, and hopping neatly away from Besputin's attempted harpoon lefts downstairs.

10-9 Butaev, closest round yet, still easy to score. The first 2 were clear for Besputin and the last 3 for Butaev.

48-47 Butaev


Round 6

Besputin is dancing around stamping the forehead of Butaev with right jabs. Butaev is turning in place and just blocking high, not getting a chance to get off many body shots. Besputin is grabbed and wrestled onto the canvas as their arms interlock while spinning in a waltz at close range. Besputin starts to put a nice sneaky left uppercut in behind a kneading right jab. Butaev gets ripped with a hard body shot as Besputin is ducking into and then flying up away from the ropes. Butaev keeps walking forward but not able to get past that pesky gnat-like Besputin southpaw jab - which isn't landing but is effectively screening for him, giving him room to move.

10-9 Besputin

57-57


^ clear round, commentator AGAIN harps on this having been a challenge to score. First half absolutely hasn't. Totally cut & dry, in fact, although each man has indeed done nice work in each round (just not enough of it from the loser of each on my card to make any of them ambiguous).


Round 7

Besputin is changing directions frequently to stymie Butaev, keeping this a distance affair where he's most effective, pumping out quick soft jabs and then occasionally setting his feet to rattle off straight flurries while Butaev is cutting inside, before peeling off laterally. Besputin is "breaking his ankles", to use basketball parlance, like a tiny point guard dribbling his way by a lumbering power forward, dancing loop-de-loops around him. Nothing spiteful coming from Besputin, just racking up amateur-style points. Butaev is following, scything at the body with both hands when almost upon Besputin and yet still being dodged as Besputin kicks his heels up behind himself, twisting and ducking as needed, playing keep-away. Nice counter left hand from Besputin at the bell.

10-9 Besputin

67-66 Besputin


Round 8

Besputin is snaking the right jab up to lay against Butaev's guard or barnacle onto his bicep, and then putting full torque on shallow left uppercuts into the gut. Butaev is headhunting at mid--range, whiffing left hooks as Besputin ducks. Clever work from Besputin, dancing around counter-clockwise and throwing prolonged straight flurries into the face and slapping right hooks on the body without ever setting his feet squarely enough that Butaev can mend the gap and lay hands on him. Brief clinch and Besputin swats him with a few light rabbit punches; the ref sees them but they're such weak pussy shots the ref doesn't even give a stern warning, just a tut-tut.

10-9 Besputin

77-75 Besputin


Round 9

Butaev is changing tacks now, instead of leading with power shots to head or body he's putting on his sniper rifle scope and really snapping his left arm at full extension with the orthodox jab, finding Besputin wherever he goes, happening to coincide with a slow-down in Besputin's legs. Butaev lands a body shots as their legs tangle and Besputin nearly face-plants into the ropes. Butaev is finding him with the jab, knifing it out into the jaw and fixing to line up a big right hand. Butaev is catching left uppercuts and flurries on the body as Besputin ducks by the ropes and desperately counters in volume, but none of them bother him, and Besputin is unable to connect on any head shot counters as Butaev keeps a tight guard while stalking. Butaev turns southpaw and starts to light Besputin up, pinning him on the ropes, hooking off the right jab, scoring roundhouse lefts on Besputin's temple! Body and head shots! Besputin hurt very badly!

10-9 Butaev

86-85 Besputin


Round 10

Besputin is desperately roping out the right jab to fend off Butaev's left jab. Besputin now has a cut nose, bridge swollen. Butaev is applying pressure, jabbing at the head and keeping the right poised and ready to loose. Besputin sees it coming when Butaev does pull trigger and is able to either dart in close and take a little of its edge off when the right does graze him, or duck & barrel in so that it beaches over his upper back as they collide into a clinch. Some deep wells of energy found in the closing half-minute as Besputin spends it all on his toes flurrying madly into Butaev's guard, a few light shots peppering his beard.

10-9 Besputin, v. close

96-94 Besputin


Round 11

Besputin is moving and jabbing, until the ref calls time so his glove can be re-taped. Time in. Butaev is firing a long 1-2, aiming the right cross alternately into the chin & chest of Besputin. Lots of movement and flurries up top from Besputin, all just churning the air or caught on the gloves of Butaev. Another switch to southpaw from Butaev, who did so well in that stance to close the ninth. Butaev marches Besputin down and putting together right jab and left uppercut combos, nearly trapping Besputin on the ropes several times. Wild flurries up top from Besputin, landing flush but to no avail. Butaev shakes off a clinch and keeps attacking, diving in with his upper body pitched forward so he can paddle the waist of Besputin.

10-9 Butaev

105-104 Besputin


Round 12

Besputin is running, a few steps to his left or right before stopping on a dime and reversing, putting out just very weak defensive single jabs. Butaev comes at him southpaw, jabbing the face and then hammering down on the back of the head with his left as Besputin tries wedging in close to fly-paper his way into clinch. Butaev just clubbing him across the nap to deter that. Besputin returns to just flat out running. Butaev squats in the middle of the ring, mirroring Besputin, their foreheads meeting as they each tee off with lunging body shots. Besputin down, slip. Butaev is jabbing down at the face as Besputin jabs up from a crouch by the ropes. Butaev on top of Besputin, tearing into him with big right hooks on the middle as Besputin shoeshines into his face.

10-9 Butaev

114-114

 

The first nine were very straightforward to score (despite the Sky commentators saying otherwise) - and the last three were a legit nightmare. Sort of a "pick what you like". That it should have objectively been scored 86-85 Besputin after nine is beyond question. From there, if you prefer Besputin's pit-pat amateurish tickle-and-run style, you could end up with a 116-112 card for Besputin. If you prefer Butaev's cleaner and more effective & damaging blows, you could have it 115-113 for him. Somewhere in between, you have 115-113 Besputin and the draw. I'd say those are the more or less acceptable range - but swinging all three of those double-digit rounds Besputin's way requires one to reward lots of work that belongs more in amateur boxing than professional.

 

So, is the WBA regular belt now vacant in light of Besputin's doping bust?

Shame the judges didn't get this right and score it a draw, because then Butaev would be able to come again for the vacant title. Instead, the loss has demoted him a few spots down the rankings. (currently #7, behind Nursultan Zhangabayen, Gabriel Maestre, Jamal James, Mikey & Danny García, and Yordenis Ugas)

Ugas would have been very winnable for him. Now he is facing an uphill climb with both Garcías barring his path; not good.

 

My scoring must be just as bad as my predicting because I ended up with a 116-112 Butaev, with no wiggle room or anything, just a rock solid 116-112. Butaev was clearly the tougher dude, Besputin has great feet but fought like a broad. His punches have zero steam, he doesn't sit down and commit with them, I hate that it drives me nuts.

Oh **** just found out Besputin popped hot. What a clown, ban that mother effer for life man there's no room for that in this sport. See ya later pal.

 

Butaev's amateur record was 392-8 with a crazy ass 164 kayos/RSC's. That's....bananas.

I know Besputin is supposed to have been a good amateur too, but more so than win percentage I'm blown away by that stoppage rate. 41% wouldn't even mark you as too much of a feather-fist in the pros - in the amateurs that is ridiculous.

So at the very least I'm willing to give Besputin credit for having a durable chin and body to even make it twelve (getting hit as often as he did in spite of all his running). But no way did he deserve to claim the strap or relieve Butaev of his professional zero - all the more infuriating with the knowledge that he probably only had that stamina to go twelve and throw such a high volume (to impress the judges and steal rounds) because of PED use.