Kuts Celebrates Birthday With A Win

By Dmytro Mossienko: Ambitious Kyiv promotional company Elit Boxing driven by Stepan Chernovetsky held at Borschagovka Gym in Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday(August 15) night was a small, but action packed six fight fights card.

In the main event, Kyiv junior welterweight prospect Valentyn Kuts marked his birthday with unanimous victory over rugged Moscow based Tajik Dilshod Abdulaev.

In a 10 round clash the two fighters thrilled the crowd with a demonstration of sportsmanship and true fighting spirit. Understanding that he’s fighting in his foe’s backyard, Abdulaev started the fight pressing his southpaw opponent with right double jabs, catching him with some flash punches. Kuts obviously lost the first round and had to listen to some astute judgment in the corner. He came back to seize initiative in the second round and this proved to be not very easy. Kuts’ main weapon, a swift right jab, proved to be instrumental in disarming the Central Asian warrior. Kuts’ right jab was destroying attacks from Abdulaev, who round by round tried to press the action.

The pace of the fight was heating up in round five, Kuts started catching his opponent with some solid left hooks and uppercuts, combining it with regular body shots. However, until the final three rounds he had never showed the killer instinct. Abdulaev was wobbled a couple times, but survived in clinches in rounds eight and 10. In rounds nine and 10 Kuts showed that he still had a lot of fuel in the tank, stormed the Tajik with flurries of punches in close quarters, but Abdulaev showed very tough whiskers and despite the punches missed never touched the canvas, amazing the audience.

The public, with the likes of female world champion Alina Shaternikova and former European light heavyweight champ Yury Barashyan in attendance, responded to the final gong with tremendous applause. Kuts improved to 18 (6) -1.

In another exciting fight, Kyiv prospect cruiserweight Dmitry Kucher won a unanimous decision over Donetsk based tough journeyman Yuri Gorbenko. Gorbenko was down in round five and was saved by the gong. He recovered during the break and even tried to upset Kucher, but Kyiv based cruiserweight shut him down, winning eventually a unanimous decision.

August 15, 2009