Boxing In Ukraine: Senchenko Wins WBA Title In Donetsk

A shakeup of the world welterweight rankings took place last night at Sportspalace Drusba in Donetsk, Ukraine as local prospect Vyacheslav Senchenko dethroned beltholder Yuriy Nuzhnenko for the WBA title.

31 year old Senchenko had come into the contest as the unbeaten WBA Intercontinental titlist but was pushed hard last year by 38 year old former European champ Frederic Klose before pulling out a close UD win.

Nuzhnenko had also faced Klose and had just as tough a time before winning a hard fought points decision to take the Interim WBA belt in 2007.

32 year old Nuzhnenko of Brovari also came into last night's bout undefeated but had been held to a 10th round technical draw draw by American Irving Garcia a year ago during an interim title defense.

It was a genuine 50-50 bout going into the clash in Donesk last night but by the time 12 rounds had elapsed, it was Senchenko who had proven his skills against Nuzhnenko, producing a 118-110 and 116-112 twice result to capture the full WBA Welterweight title.

Senchenko improves to 29-0 (20), while Nuzhnenko drops to 28-1-1 (13). With Senchenko's victory, the Donetsk man could possibly be looking toward two big all-Ukraine title defenses against either former European title challenger Viktor Plotnikov or undefeated Valery Brazhnik.

There were two other high profile contests at Sportspalace Drusba as local featherweight Oleg Yefimovych, 16-1 (10), retained his European title for the second time with a wide points verdict against iron-chinned Frenchman Osman Aktas, 33-17-1 (6), and light welter southpaw Vladimir Kravets, 19-0 (12), kept his EBU-EE Light Welter strap for the fourth time with a third round stoppage of Yauhen Kruhlik, 9-12-2 (1).