Sergei Fedchenko vs. Felix Lora & Oleksandr Usyk vs. Epifanio Mendoza RBR

Oleksandr Usyk vs. Epifanio Mendoza, 6 rounds @ heavyweight

 

:yep

 

...yes, this will be fought at heavyweight.

Usyk and Mendoza both weighed several pounds over the cruiser limit.

 

Anthems, first Colombian then Ukrainian.

 

Quite beautiful - the Ukrainian anthem, that is...and roughly 70% of the choir harmonizing it clad in angelic white. (basically excluding the roughly 30% or so males, who may well be paragons of masculine beauty yet to my eyes are just taking up space there )

 

The boxing gods are just.

One is a massively exciting prospect soon to be a global star. The other is a Euro level jab artist with a reputation for being a bit of a puss. (once dragging even Dinamita into a boring contest! :-()

 

Round 1

Usyk is sticking the right jab on Mendoza, turning his face with it. Usyk is placing the 1-2 carefully and hopping backward as Mendoza tosses a counter right from its holster under his chin. Usyk flings up his left arm to catch a looping right by Mendoza. Nice 1-2 by Usyk putting Menoza on the ropes.

10-9 Usyk

 

Round 2

Usyk is threading in the right jab and left cross on the face of Mendoza and then ducking and fading from view before Mendoza can even begin to roll out a counter left jab. Mendoza is being made to look slower than molasses with Usyk's quick hands and mongoose defensive reflexes. Usyk is walking Mendoza toward a corner and lands a perfect left hand through a breach in Mendoza's 1-2, followed quickly by another, dropping him. Mendoza is up and poking out at Usyk with his left jab, pumping in lefts and rights hoping to keep Usyk shy. Unworried, Usyk keeps landing jabs while swerving his face around the straight punches of Mendoza.

10-8 Usyk

20-17 Usyk