Bigger's Better XXIV: Varna, Bulgaria RBR

Top of the hour. :good

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Nope, still heavies, same as ever.

Got yer names, countries, disciplines:

Quarterfinal #1 - Michał Wlazlo vs. Borislav Vujanovic (Polish MMA'ist vs. Bosnian K1 vet)
Quarterfinal #2 - Patrice Aurieng vs. Milen Paunov (both kickboxers, French vs. Bulgarian)
Quarterfinal #3 - Edmond Baltatzis vs. Ionut Patriche (both kickboxers, Greek vs. Romanian)
Quarterfinal #4 - Bjoern Blaschke vs. Mario Jagatic (German boxer vs. Croatian MMA'ist)

(Paunov & Baltatzis have previous BB experience - the latter was fairly impressive and made it all the way into the Finals match with Bogdan Dinu @ BB 23, as you may recall...)

Obviously we have to support our sport above the others, so my proposed rooting interests are Blaschke - a cruiserweight with a 9-2 (5) record - as the only representative of the sweet science, and Baltatzis for having earned our esteem last time at least until Dinu treated him like a mole in a carnival whacking game. Really may the best random Euro prevail - as long as that ends up not being a filthy mixed martial artist! :twisted: :yep BOO, Pole and Croat!

 

SNOOKER?! c

Shanghai Masters quarterfinals or not, sort your **** out, EuroSport! Boxing should be on now!! :fy

It's the eleventh career rematch between Neil Robertson and Junhui Ding, if anybody cares. Heading into today's action, Robertson is up 6-5 lifelong h2h against Ding.

(by the way, this is on delay and not even live, so avoid Google if you don't want to be spoiled on the result...)

 

OK so the score graphic reads as follows:

Robertson 80 [1 (9) 2] 22 Ding

...can a snooker fan decipher that for us?

Are we near to done?

 

*******s.

 

So in the current frame it's now Robertson up 86-22 over Ding.

Make that 104-22.

Needless to say he probably has this frame in hand, so they're like to be knotted at two apiece? :yep

 

Not as such.

Only the one current pro, Blaschk. He is 6'4", big fellow at cruiser, but 35 years old and has never really fought anyone of note. He lost in his two biggest steps up, a unanimous decision to a Ghanaian journeyman for the WBF Intercontinental title and then a stoppage by a young Polish-based Nigerian knockout artist (Izuagbe Ugonoh, now 9-0 with 7 kayos)

Baltatzis and Paunov and maybe some of the others essentially do have pro boxing experience from participating in past Bigger's Better tourneys, but they have ceased to count them as sanctioned pro bouts so a lot of guys who in the past were listed as having debuted are now without records...and those who do have active records have big gaps on them (for instance, Bogdan Dinu is listed as inactive since last year despite having won the last Bigger's Better in July...and make no mistake, these are professional boxing matches for all intents and purposes except the official sanctioning)



Next month @ BB XV in Poprad, Slovakia there are some better-known guys like Lucian Bot of Romania, Ivica Perkovic of Croatia, and Roman Kracik of the Czech Republic. Kracik is actually pretty tough but is now 42 and has been knocked out with increasing frequency of late. Perk is OK for what he is, and nearly stopped Dimitrenko not long ago. Bot is the fave there, a chance to vindicate himself after being eliminated by Konstantin Airich in the quarterfinals of another slightly more prestigious heavyweight knockout tournament, the UK's Prizefighter.

 

Yep, it's called "Bigger's Better King of 2013" and it takes place in Portugal in December.

Here's the draw:

• Ali Baghouz, winner of BB 19 in Portugal vs. Evgenios Lazaridis, winner of BB 20 in Greece
• Konstantin Airich, winner of BB 21 in Germany vs. Tomacz Sarara, winner of BB 22 in Poland
• Bogdan Dinu, winner of BB 23 in Romania vs. tonight's winner in Bulgaria
• The BB 25 winner in Slovakia (probably Bot) vs. the BB 26 winner in Latvia in November.

 

Ding advances by topping Robertson 5-2, and locks them at six apiece in their careers h2h.