Bolling bulldozes his biggest test in Oganov
Despite being the semi-main attraction for his entire career, Michael Bolling continues to outshine his spotlight. The current Australian super-middleweight champion extended his undefeated record to 12-0, 10 KOs when he dominated the so called toughest test of his short career in big-punching Victor Oganov (30-3, 28 KOs) in the semi-main event of a six fight card promoted by Grange Old School Boxing.
Incredibly it was Bolling's second title fight in just over four weeks, pretty amazing when you consider he went seven rounds in that first fight (Joel Burke RTD 7) and eight nonstop rounds against Oganov.
Going into the fight there was no doubt that Bolling had the momentum, but Oganov, despite being a shell of what he was years ago has still shared the ring with world class fighters such as Andre Dirrell. Oganov can also boast wins over previously Junior Talipeau and a big knockout win over former WBO top ten world rated super middleweight Kariz Kariuki.
Bolling put on a great display as he began to slowly pick off Oganov in the early rounds, before letting loose an onslaught that Oganov had no answer for. Bolling was bigger, stronger, younger and landed alot of punches that Oganov, who has next to no head or lateral movement had no answer for. Despite putting up a brave effort in several rounds, Oganov had no answers to the questions that Bolling was asking of him, continually landing the more telling blows to a near defenceless Oganov.
Oganov threw everything he had at Bolling, but the defending champion stood firm and countered the Russian with some hard, telling shots. By the fifth round, Oganov's face was bruised, battered, cut up and swelling at a fairly fast rate. Despite being the favourite, it is not unfair to say that Bolling rose to the occasion, considering he was beating a fighter that has almost triple the ring experience as him.
In the main event of the evening, Ghanaian Joseph Kwadjo (14-1, 10 KOs) bagged the biggest win of his career when he knocked out former Olympian and world title challenger Jamie Pittman (19-2, 8 KOs) in seven rounds in a come from behind performance to win the vacant IBF Australasian super-middleweight title.
Far from intimidated and out of his depth as most had expect, Kwadjo went out to meet Pittman and stood toe to toe with the light-punching Australian. Pittman offered a large majority of the attack but appeared to lack the power to do any damage to Kwadjo.
Kwadjo fought the entire fight behind a high guard, content to follow, watch and feel out Pittman rather than fight overly aggressive and over anxious; a strategy that Pittman would be all too familiar in picking apart. Although Kwadjo was clearly the puncher out of the two in the fight, after five rounds he certainly wasn't in it, well at least on the scorecards as Pittman was fighting the perfect fight.
Despite being clearly behind, Kwadjo stayed cool and allowed Pittman to expend energy by hitting Kwadjo mainly on the gloves and arms. Gradually the tide turned and by the sixth round Pittman appeared to have gassed out, getting caught by clean shots before going down to one knee. Kwadjo sensed the urgency and ran in to floor Pittman for a second time.
Although Pittman appeared to have recovered, he made a uncharactistic error by charging in and trying to trade with Kwadjo, who clearly had plenty in the tank and was on the hunt. As the round drew to a close, an exhausted Pittman retreated to the ropes and was floored for the third and final time by an overhand right which landed at almost the exact same time as the bell rang to end the round.
In a mini slugfest, Billy Dib (26-1, 14 KOs) escaped a potential life and death contest with tough Filipino Reynaldo Belandres (13-2-2, 8 KOs), knocking him out with a four-punch combination halfway through round six of a scheduled eight-round fight.
For four rounds, Belandres was giving Dib a very difficult fight. Although Belandres brave challenge had a sudden ending, credit must be given to the Filipino for pushing a world-rated fighter to the limit, albeit for a short period of time. Dib showed his class by overcoming the tough start, putting his punches together, using his jab beautifully as well as crashing in the right hand that ended the fight, just like that.
Dib was the busier and faster of the two fighters, jabbing and landing right hands but Belandres' blows were much heavier. This should be the beginning of a very interesting year for Dib, who at IBF #7 should be in line for a world title shot sooner than we think. For Belandres, he should be commended for his brave effort but the Filipino must improve his conditioning if he is to improve on his past two results in Australia.
With a Commonwealth title shot lined up in July, unified regional champion Dominic Vea (12-2, 10 KOs) waged war for eight rounds with Anthony McCracken (12-4, 4 KOs) in a punishing eight round fight. It was strange to see that Vea, a fighter that had two regional titles and a pending shot at the Commonwealth title would risk his belts against a fighter that is considered to be one of the toughest in the division, especially after having his nose broken by Danny Green in the previous week and in an eight round fight. One judge had it 77-75 for Vea, whilst the other two scored the fight 78-75 and 78-76 for McCracken.
The younger McCracken was busier, while Vea was clearly throwing the harder shots. Despite having real trouble breathing out of his nose, Vea put up a courageous performance, battling toe to toe with McCracken despite being hurt on several occasions. Vea also hurt McCracken several times but was abit too slow to catch up to him after it and that was the difference.
In other fights, big-punching Filipino Ranee Ganoy (30-11-2, 26 KOs) easily dispatched former IBF World Youth light-welterweight champion Decha Bankluagym (30-11-3, 16 KOs) in two one sided rounds. Let's hope to see Ganoy in a regional title fight sooner rather than later in 2010.