Tugstsogt Nyambayar is the truth.

His name has been whispered among diehards for a long time (long before he turned pro, and even before his Olympic silver medal) and now he's being fast-tracked (with 6 appearances since his debut, averaging one every ~10 weeks) and showcased on TV. So when you hear Goossen bragging about having a future world champ in his stable, he isn't just whistling Dixie or reciting the usual preening sound bytes you're supposed to in the immediate triumphant afterglow of a developing prospect.

...and no, this isn't just a knee-jerk reaction to his impressive KO1 victory over Rafael Vazquez tonight on PBC on ESPN, although it was quite a savage display of might. No, it was the result of his penultimate outing (which I haven't even seen, nor has anybody) - when he low-key, on a non-televised card this past May, became the only person to ever stop Johnny "Fenix" Ruiz. That is huge, even if only by corner retirement. Many of you have over the years seen me extol Ruiz as having the pound for pound best chin in the sport today. That was never understatement. I stand by that. Fenix has soaked up wall to wall punishment, from moderate to very good hitters, for damn near 180 seconds of each and every round - and scantly ever taken a backward step. Physically and mentally as tough as they come. Stopping him, no matter how ugly his W-L record, means something.

Besides, he passes the eye test, with flying colors IMO. This isn't some brutish clubber being mismatched with tomato cans to pad up an illusory puncher's record. His technical form - at least offensively - is on-point, and his amateur credentials speak for themselves.

Nyambayar is what many clowns in the boxing community deluded themselves a decade back about what another fast hard-punching guy in the featherweight range was, or could've been: the real deal. Valero wasn't, and in a time machine would get sparked within 5. :tong

 

...2nd test. Vazquez is his 2nd best win to date.

 

Mongolia is technically arguably the ONLY true "Central Asian" country...at least north of the Bay of Bengal.

The seven ending in -stan form the western fringe of the Asian continent, as much as N & S Korea define its (mainland) easternmost boundary. ...and the westernmost reaches of Mongolia are equidistant from Japan as its eastern borders are from the Caspian Sea.

As central as it gets, really. imp:

 

I'd wonder that (given that nobody except those in the venue will ever know or be able to do more than speculate or get secondhand accounts) if Nyambyar was some rando, and hadn't just reinforced credulence of his power with that Vazquez destruction. 8)