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Soon to be 45 year old living legend Evander Holyfield went halfway across the world in search of one more world title belt but the former two-weight world champion was denied in his quest by WBO Heavyweight Champion Sultan Ibragimov.
Stepping through the ropes at the chilly Khodynka Ice Palace in Moscow, Holyfield had hoped to entice the 32 year old Ibragimov to stand and trade punches with him but Russian was in no mood to give up his advantages and put his title at risk by doing so.
Ibragimov wisely kept on the move to prevent the ex-champion from setting up an offense and tried to catch Holyfield off balance at opportune moments.
While Ibragimov did score points during these sporadic attacks, he also felt the wrath of Holyfield’s ability to counter with hard shots of his own.
As the fighters settled in, Ibragimov’s youth and edge in quickness began to take their toll on the older man. Holyfield got his second wind in the sixth but could not improve upon his work after shaking the champion a couple of times.
Just like in his title winning effort against Shannon Briggs in June, Ibragimov spent the rest of the bout getting in for a quick spell of work and then getting back out before his aging opponent could gain revenge.
Holyfield was hurt by a volley of bodyshots in the tenth but almost pulled it off in the twelfth and final round with a massive right hand that clearly hurt Ibragimov but “The Real Deal” had nothing left in the tank with which to go after his quarry.
Ibragimov retained his WBO belt for the first time via scores of 118-110 and 117-111 (twice), improving to 22-0-1 (17) while Holyfield loses for the first time in five contests to fall to 42-9-2 (27).
In the chief support bout, Dimitri Kirilov, 29-3 (9), dropped his opponent in the third before putting together a late round surge to annex the vacant IBF Super Fly crown with a close unanimous decision win over Jose Navarro, 26-3 (12), on marks of 116-112 and 114-113 (twice).
New Zealand based Algerian Mohamed Azzaoui, 22-0-2 (8), stopped Henry Saenz, 16-7-1 (12), of Costa Rica in the eighth to retain the IBF Pan Pacific Cruiserweight title.
Former NABF Crusierweight titlist Vadim Tokarev, 24-1-1 (17), finished off Marlon Hayes, 23-10 (11), in the third and light heavyweight Bernard Donflact, 6-5-4 (1), pulled off a bit of an upset by drawing with Dawid Kostecki, 24-1-1 (18) of Poland.
