Boxen im Norden: Khoren Gevor vs. Viktor Polyakov RBR [Rafael Bejarán vs. Ilias Essaoudi postponed]

Pretty interesting matchmaking in this one, but unfortunately Thomas Nissen is something of a small-fry promoter on the German domestic scene and so this officially has no TV coverage. There's reason to believe a low-quality FB stream is a possibility; watch this space.

Main event:

Bejarán, aka "The Karibik Tiger", a Dominican-German gadfly who is often found in major org top 15 rankings (floating around the bottom, inconspicuously) and is currently the IBF 10th-ranked contender at middleweight, returns to 154lbs to make the first defense of his WBF super welter title in perhaps the first meaningful step up in class of his 25-2-1 (11) career. All three of his blemishes - the draw and both losses - came against obscure European riffraff, the best opposition coming in his WBO middleweight Euro title run in 2011-2012, ended by Ante Bilić (a serviceable Croatian who crossed over from kickboxing, where he was far more decorated, and fought on competitive terms with Lukáš Konečný in a UD loss in their primes) since which time Bejarán is on an 11-0-1 (5) run. He is a light-hitting, counter-punching stylist with a lot of swagger reminiscent of Maravilla but not even half the lightning reflexes or upper-body elasticity of the great Argentine-Spaniard.

A young undefeated German-born prospect of Lebanese descent, "The Assassin" is also facing his first live body, although he already possesses by far the biggest name to be found on either man's record - a very shopworn Kassim Ouma, nearly two decades removed from his pro debut and just a week before celebrating his 39th birthday. Essaoudi beat him by UD8, but lost a couple of rounds on all three judges' cards. Essaoudi is a very straight-up fighter, jabbing from a high guard and looking to score with straight pot shots with the powerful rear hand - the classical "robotic" German boxer stereotype in the Ulli Wegner mold with minimal infighting acumen, virtually no head movement, etc. He does have power in the right hand, though - as Ouma even pushing 40 is a good litmus test for hurtful blows and did wince a few times when caught - although my suspicion is Ouma could've been screwed (haven't sat down to watch/score the whole thing yet).

Co-feature #1:

Sebastiano Lo Zito, aka the "Sicilian Stallion", is a slippery (but not particularly fast) jab-happy southpaw, stepping up in class to challenge for Kazakh-born slugger Roman Hardok's super middleweight German national title. Kind of a throwaway match, not much interesting about it or its principals outside the usual "somebody's 0 must go" mystique.

Co-feature #2:

Khoren Gevor, aka the dirtiest player in the game in his day (next to perhaps Luis Alberto Lazarte, though it was a toss-up who actually was dirtier) is returning from a layoff of nearly half a dozen years since getting shut out by the young scrawny 168lb version of Maxim Vlasov. His opponent is Viktor Polyakov - a diminutive but hard-nosed and well-schooled Russian who just recently got stopped for the first time in his stop-and-go pro career (which has failed to live up to his amateur pedigree & promise - he was an Olympian and respected force in the unpaid ranks...but he's still a respectable trier and has only been defeated professionally by unbeaten prospects) by Nieky Holzken. A decade ago this would've been a very significant match-up and yielded a top European contender. Now it just makes for a weird little triviality, an 8-rounder buried on a non-televised card nobody even knew was happening.

 

Currently almost 11pm in Hamburg, so at least one if not both co-featured matches are probably over already; even if we get a stream at this point it would likely be in time only for the main event. No results to be found yet.

 

A couple of minutes of amateur ringside footage of what appears to be (I'm like 99% sure is) Gevor vs. Polaykov was posted on the promoter's Facebook page by a fan a few hours ago:

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That's all we've got for now.

 

I really hope Gevor lost.

 

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Gevor beat Polyakov on points, Hardok knocked out Lo Zito, and Zoltan Csala lost to yet another Lewandowski bro (kayoed today in 2 by Christian; he dropped a 6-rounder UD to Dennis in December)

No word on the main event.

 

Ah, grazie.

 

Thanks for the info! Yeah that was the right call. Rescheduled?

 

BoxRec says Lo Zito beat Hardok by technical decision after 6.

Scores in Gevor vs. Polyakov were 78-74, 78-73, and 77-75. I'm willing to bet CST is right and Polyakov got shafted again, or at least that 78-74 is too wide.

 

Hopefully televised somewhere next time.

 

We need speculate no more!

Once again the fans have come through for each other with some video shot ringside:

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Khoren Gevor vs. Viktor Polyakov, 8 rounds @ super middleweight