Ex-Soviets Making Presence Felt, Serious Title Bids at Welterweight
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 24 Oct 2019
In a welterweight division dominated by top American champions with the sole exception of Manny Pacquiao, fighters from the former Soviet Union are making their presence felt as they bid to get their share of action and possibly, titles as well as the glory and the perks that go with them.
In December, Lithuanian former amateur star Egidijus Kavaliauskas will attempt to not only pin Terrence Crawford his first professional defeat but also wrest his WBO welterweight title in a heavily billed fight card to be held in Las Vegas.
Before that, on November 30, 2019, two former Russian amateur standouts now unbeaten pros in the persons of Alexander Besputin and Radzhab Butaev, rated number one and three contenders respectively will clash for the WBA welterweight regular belt left vacant by Pacquiao after his winning the WBA super title from Keith Thurman last July.
Meanwhile, current WBA number one contender Kudratillo Abdukakhorov of Uzbekistan has welcomed the news of WBC and IBF unified champion Errol Spence escaping unscathed from a major car crash recently and is looking forward to a possible ring confrontation with the undefeated American next year.
Born June 29, 1988, Kavaliauskas is a Lithuanian professional boxer who held the NABF welterweight title from 2017 to 2019 and the WBO Inter-Continental welterweight title in 2018. As an amateur, he represented Lithuania at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games and won a bronze medal at the 2011 AIBA World Boxing Championships. As of August 2019, Kavaliauskas is ranked as the world's eighth best active welterweight by The Ring magazine.
Known as The Mean Machine, Kavaliauskas is undefeated in 21 fights with the lone mark on his ledger a draw against American Ray Robinson, Jr. in his last fight in defense of his NABF title. He won 17 of his fights via the short route and counts on former WBA titlist David Avanasyan, Juan Carlos Abreau, Ramses Agaton and Pablo Mungia among his victims.
Crawford has a previous experience fighting against a former Soviet amateur standout when he fought and defeated on points Russian Victor Postol when he was still at 140 lbs.
Meanwhile, Besputin, from Kamensk-Uralsky, Russia who now resides in Oxnard, California has a record of 13-0 with 9 KOs as compared to Butaev's 12-0 also with 9 knockout victories. Besputin holds wins over Juan Carlos Abreau, Rodolfo Blanco, Breidis Prescott and Azael Cosio. Butaev from Salsk, Russia now fighting out of Brooklyn, New York boasts of wins over the likes of Silverio Ortiz, Lemardo Tyner, Ramses Agaton and Janier Gonzales.
The winner of their fight could be a challenger for Pacquiao next year if the WBA will order it. Pacquiao will however not be new to fighting ex Soviets having fought one when he was still in the featherweights and having sparred with the Siberian Rocky, Ruslan Provodnikov who almost won a welterweight title years back against Timothy Bradley.
Abdugofurov is an Uzbek former amateur standout who once held the WBC silver welterweight title and is now rated by the Ring Magazine among the top ten active welterweights in the world. He decisively defeated former world titleholder Luis Collazo in his most recent fight and also held solid wins over fellow world rated Keita Obara and Charles Manyuchi and Dmitri Mykailenko.
Vyacheslav Senchenko from Ukraine was the first from the former Soviet bloc to win a world title at welterweight with the WBA in 2009 beating a fellow Ukrainian Yurly Nezhenko who had earlier won the interim championship. He lost the title two years later to Paulie Malignaggi.
David Avanasyan of Russia followed when he defeated Charlie Navarro and former titlist Shane Mosley in Moscow in 2016 for the interim and later regular WBA titles. He lost it to Lamont Peterson in 2017. After losing to Kavaliauskas in a NABF title try, Avanasyan has since bounced back winning the European championship with back to back knockout wins over the erstwhile highly regarded Kerman Lejarraga of Spain.
Waiting in the wings for their opportunities are other ex Soviet bloc fighters as Nursultan Zhangabayev, Shojahon Ergashev and Sergey Lipinets who once forced Mikey Garcia to a struggle at 140 and recently retired Lamont Peterson after knocking him out in a welterweight bout.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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