Sixth of September in Chelyabinsk, on a stacked RCC Promotions card headlined by Zaur Magomedalievich Abdullaev (#6) vs. Juan Javier Carrasco (#12) in an IBF lightweight eliminator. This one is scheduled for eight rounds at super featherweight. Both combatants are in their mid to late twenties and both had threadbare amateur runs, but it's been a very different road in the pros for the slick native of Pervouralsk (two kilometers from the symbolic European-Asian border monument) and the banger from Baku. Mark "Canelo" Urvanov has been rebounding from adversity since losing his debut via shutout UD4 in 2015. He spent the next three years rebuilding on the domestic scene only to have it all unwound by Tajik fellow prospect Muhammadkhuja Yaqubov in 2018. Since then his only blemishes have been a split draw with Nikita Kuznetsov and split decision loss to José Ángel "Humildad (The Modest)" Rodríguez Mujica, with decent victories peppered in along the way over the likes of upper-tier Pinoy journeyman Marco Pepito Demecillo, countryman Evgeniy Aleksandrovich "Happy Gilmore" Chuprakov, formerly world ranked Kyrgyz southpaw Akzhol Sulaimanbek Uulu, amateur standout Ruslan Umalatovich Kamilov, and on-the-slide former champ René Antonio "Gemelo" Alvarado Sánchez - the lesser of the Alvarado twins but nonetheless world class in his pomp and still tough & dangerous. Seymur "Grey Wolf" İsayev, on the other hand, debuted three years ago but has made no strides to increase his opposition level while padding up a very pretty KO record of 12-0 (10) - good for 88%, but against dregs. Just four bouts ago in July of 2022 he crushed the debuting Irza Khalafov in the 2nd - and then for some reason they had a rematch last year (with Khalafov still just 0-1) that lo and behold was an exact repeat of that result. He also doesn't seem as fully locked in on boxing as his discipline as Urvanov - with a somewhat disastrous foray into MMA seeing him KTFO by Tərlan Bağıyev in what amounted to, in effect, basically a stand-up boxing match just...in a cage. To be fair, in his one actual step up in class to date he did stop Muhammad Bilal of Pakistan to claim the vacant UBO title - whatever the hell that is. Urvanov vs. Alvarado: This content is protected Urvanov vs. Uulu: This content is protected İsayev vs. Bilal: This content is protected İsayev vs. Bağıyev This content is protected I think respective styles here promise an explosive contest while it lasts, which in my opinion won't be the full eight. The bull, İsayev, will be rushing into counters and doesn't have the sturdiest chin himself. On the other hand, the matador, Urvanov, has been down and given standing 8 counts a few times in his career, though never stopped. I guess there are more question marks surrounding the less experienced Azerbaijani fighter - as to how good both his power and chin are.
I'm going to tentatively say Urvanov by stoppage in 6-7, with the caveat that him getting stopped himself wouldn't be the biggest surprise if he has a lapse in concentration and/or İsayev's pop is legit. Russian Canelo is giving up a good deal of size here, with the Grey Wolf two inches taller and having fought his first several bouts up at light welter.
I think İsayev will be too big, too slick and fast for him, also his southpaw stance will be an issue. Sure, Uulu is a southpaw as well, but an ultra aggressive one, coming in with no defense, face first, throwing himself into Urvanov's shots, and was begging to be KTFO. İsayev isn't about that life, he'll make Mark come to him, and pick him off. Although, this is Russia, so a robbery or a draw isn't out of the question, like last time, when Aliev should've been given the victory. For some reason, inexplicably Urvanov seems to be a protected guy.
What the... Yeah, that's either some finger-poke of doom nonsense (İsayev betting on himself to lose by KO1?) or İsayev wolfed down a pot of three bean chili after the weigh-in and crapped himself on contact. In either case, imagine being 12-0 and losing your zero for...that.
Yes, the 10 seconds the post is referring to is 10 seconds into the first round. That was the only punch landed in the fight. Either due to him betting on himself, or getting paid off to lose and not liking the money, so he did their bidding, but made it so obvious that he thinks they'll catch the blowback. Any way you cut it, it's clearly a dive.
