Ali Musaevich Baloyev vs. Afinni Abiodun & Alexey Yurevich Egorov vs. Hamilton Ventura Conceição RBR

Round 7

Baloyev is marching in, tossing high left hooks leads, missing by a mile. Right hands downstairs from Baloyev, caught on the elbows. Abiodun is seeing everything coming well in advance, with Baloyev now moving sluggishly and betraying his intentions at every turn. Abiodun still VERY cautious, giving plenty of room & respect, only flurrying in quick bursts and darting out again. Nice jab on the belt line from Abiodun, followed by a right up top which keeps Baloyev's left glove maneuvering to block and creates an opening for some more pokes on the body from Abiodun. Very nice boxing from the Nigerian here, although it won't help much with the points hole that he must surely be in at this late stage.

10-9 Abiodun

60-64 Baloyev

 

I was waiting all through the round break (while ogling the Russian ring card girl) to see what highlights they would show, as the Shamo Boxing broadcast is very obviously biased in Baloyev's favor, and sure enough 50 seconds into the break, right before going live, the best their technical director could cobble together was a few seconds' clip of Baloyev throwing a 7 punch combo with Abiodun on the ropes...with ALL seven punches blocked.

 

I would presume so, being the biggest name, but don't actually know for sure.

 

Round 8

Baloyev is peppering the guard with straight combos. Abiodun is getting bold, standing in and stretching a long jab into the face while Baloyev is punching at him from mid-range with only a slight twist of his upper body and pulling away of his chin to defend himself in the melee. Baloyev suddenly ratchets up the aggression, putting more force behind his 1-2s, and catches Abiodun with a HUGE RIGHT CROSS/LEFT HOOK/RIGHT CROSS, sending him down and out!

KO8!!, holy shit!

 

I was 99.99% sure this was going to reach the scorecards as of literally two seconds before that very abrupt, violent end.

 

So...not a perfect performance from Baloyev, he has some things to work on, but MAN was that a nice finish.

 

Martin Dzhuaryan vs. Luka Tchilauri, 6 rounds @ lightweight

 

Alright, well I've got to go shower - hopefully Egorov vs. Ventura will be on after this one, or else I'm definitely going to have to miss it.

Sergey Lubkovich is also on this card, not sure if he has fought yet. @Serge @Chuck Norris @CST80

 

Demoted to a 4 rounder.

 

The beanpole Georgian is Tchilauri, for anyone just tuning in (and who might want to grab the wheel in the RBR cockpit? )

 

Great stuff @JordanK2406!