Gassed out. Iron Man: Russian boxer Gassiev knocked out Pole Wlodarczyk and defended the title of world champion Zagassil. How Gassiev defeated Wlodarczyk
The star of the Russian Murat Gassiev, nicknamed Zhelezny, rose in the boxing firmament in December 2016, when the 24-year-old native of Vladikavkaz defeated Denis Lebedev on points and took away the belt of the world champion according to the International Boxing Federation (IBF) in the first heavy weight (up to 90, 7 kg).
After that, Gassiev and Lebedev unsuccessfully tried to agree on revenge. Murat eventually showed up to participate in the World Super Series (WBSS) - a new tournament that takes place in an unusual way for professional boxing playoff system. The opponent in the quarterfinals of the youngest participant in the competition was an experienced boxer - 36-year-old Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, nicknamed the Devil, who had 57 fights behind him (53 wins, three losses and one draw).
Each new fight is important and special for any boxer. Gassiev and Vlodarczyk were no exception. For the Russian, this was the first defense of the title and an opportunity to gain a foothold in the elite of world boxing, and for the Pole it was a chance to return to the cohort of champions, because several years ago he owned the IBF (2006-2007) and WBC (2010-2014) championship belts.
Nevertheless, Wlodarczyk did not attach of great importance upcoming fight. “It is unlikely that the fight with Gassiev will be the most important in my career for me,” the Polish athlete assured. - Its significance is that it is title. I am motivated by the opportunity to become the first Pole to win the title three times. For me, this is a chance to make history. The fact that Gassiev is the favorite is an additional pressure on my opponent. I have nothing to lose. I can knock out Gassiev."
The Russian was more restrained, but noted that it would be nice to decide everything ahead of schedule, and not give the fate of the meeting into the hands of the judiciary. “Of course, every boxer wants to end the fight with a knockout so that there are no questions left for the judges. But things don't always work out as planned. We need to give our best and do everything to win, ”Gassiyev said.
From the very beginning of the fight, the roles were clearly distributed: Gassiev acted as the first number and acted as the aggressor, and Vlodarczyk intended to catch the opponent with counter blows. The Russian sought to avoid the late rounds, where his opponent feels like a fish in water.
Gassiev started without reconnaissance, and already from the second three-minute period his advantage grew exponentially. It seemed that only a miracle would save the Polish boxer from a knockout. But it didn't happen. In the third round, Gassiev carried out another attack, sending a left to the head, and then hit right on the liver, after which Wlodarczyk could not recover. He recovered only for the post-match interview, although he still continued to hold the glove in the liver area.
“It all started with me trying to block an uppercut to the head. The previous blows were heavy, but not the kind that could knock me out. We prepared to avoid such strikes, but it did not help. We knew how he would fight. My strength is the second half of the fight, but I failed to implement my plan, ”Wlodarczyk said after the fight.
Gassiev, in turn, admitted that he was preparing for a long fight. “I had a great opponent, I prepared myself for a 12-round fight. Knockout? I had a chance and I took it. We worked a lot in the gym with the coach, in every round he tells me what to do. That's all," Gassiev noted.
The Russian boxer became the latest WBSS semi-finalist and continued the trend, according to which champions of their divisions defeat contenders for the title. Earlier, Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (WBO world champion), Cuban Yunier Dorticos (WBA), who knocked out Russian Dmitry Kudryashov, and Latvian representative Mairis Briedis (WBC) made their way to the quartet of the strongest. All participants of the semi-final are undefeated in the professional ring.
Gassiev's next opponent will be Dorticos, who was present at the Russian fight and promised to knock him out. He stated this while standing in an elegant suit and with a belt on his shoulders during a duel of views.
Their duel was supposed to take place back in March 2015, but was first postponed and then completely canceled. Now there are no obstacles for the fight. Boxers should meet in early 2018. And now Gassiev will not only hold the second defense of the championship belt, but will also try to unify the belts and become a regular WBA world champion. In addition, the winner will receive a ticket to the WBSS final, where the title of the undisputed world champion in the first heavyweight division will be contested.
Gassed out. How Gassiev defeated Wlodarczyk
As expected by the entire progressive public, the IBF world champion in the category up to 90.7 kg, Russian Murat Gassiev, “put out” the ex-champion of the Pole Krzysztof Wlodarczyk and reached the semifinals of the tournament of eight strongest boxers in this weight. But only the very avant-garde part of this most progressive public assumed (and now one can already say - knew) that he would do it so easily.
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It is difficult to spread a big thought over a small tree, however, the two and a half rounds that this fight lasted gave us a fair amount of food for thought and led to certain conclusions.
Conclusion one. It seems that Gassiev hits even harder than we thought, and we already thought oh-oh-oh. In this case, this resulted in the fact that Wlodarczyk, in fact, lost the fight in the first round, when he unconditionally lost in a duel on jabs. In terms of the number of blows delivered, he may have almost caught up with Gassiev, but in terms of quality ... But Wlodarczyk is a very courageous boxer, and it was completely unusual to see him so fearful of an opponent. Apparently, he quickly realized that it was not worth missing from Gassiev and the jab, not to mention everything else, and generally ceased to understand what he should do except try to catch Murat on the counterattack, but he quickly became convinced that these counterattacks are more dangerous for him than for Gassiev.
Second conclusion. Gassiev has grown a lot as a boxer since his fight with Denis Lebedev. He was not straightforward at all, although in this case he could afford it, since Wlodarczyk and the straightforward one clearly wanted to have as little in common as possible. Gassiev constantly deceived Wlodarczyk, caught him on the counter-move and remarkably trained the Pole for a knockout blow, accustomed him to hitting the head, including from below, and after another left uppercut struck a terrible left blow to the body in the liver area, and hit this one didn't look crazy or random, but very well planned. Moreover, in this case it is categorically not important whether Gassiev came up with all this himself or fulfilled the coaching instructions. The only thing that matters is how he did it, and he did it beyond all praise. When Wlodarczyk fell down and lay motionless, I think that many people got sick from this painful sight in their own livers. Almost like hawthorn, pip on my tongue. What was it like for Wlodarczyk himself? I just didn't want to be in his place.
Since Murat Gassiev is only 24 and a little over a year ago, you most likely did not know who he was, it is generally accepted that his career is just beginning. Therefore, each new challenge, starting with the duel with Denis Lebedev, is regarded as the biggest challenge on the sports path of the Ossetian fighter. That was the fight with Krzysztof Wlodarczyk.
This time the test was waiting for Gassiev not only and not so much in the ring. And it began long before it hit its perimeter. The fact is that everyone, from experts to bookmakers, considered Wlodarczyk an almost hopeless underdog. The second on the victory of the ex-world champion in two versions and the offender of the two Russians accepted bets with a coefficient of 9.20. On his debut in the ring with a fight with the best boxer of the generation Conor McGregor, the coefficient closer to the fight was in the region of 5.0. This is for comparison.
Having become a star literally overnight, until this early morning, he had not yet had the opportunity to demonstrate how he manages to cope with the growing pressure around him. The meeting with Wlodarczyk was ideal for doing this: with all the clear advantages of the younger Gassiev, it was completely incomprehensible why everyone suddenly wrote off the former WBC and IBF world champion, who had not lost since 2014. Krzysztof seemed to be quite satisfied with all this.
“The fact that Gassiev is the favorite is an additional pressure on my opponent. I have nothing to lose. I can knock out Gassiev,” the Pole said before the fight.
Fortunately, Murat himself understood all this, plus experienced coaches led by Abel Sanchez seem to have paid a lot of attention to Gassiev's mental preparation.
“I looked into Wlodarczyk's eyes and saw that he was very serious,” the Ossetian boxer admitted a few days before the fight. - He is ready for a big fight, and I'm sure that Saturday will be a great match. I don't want to think about a potential fight with Dorticos. He may be great, but I'm totally focused on Wlodarczyk."
Iron vs Devil. Last fight of the 1/4 finals of the WBSS in the 1st heavyweight division
We are talking about the duel between Murat Gassiev and Krzysztof Wlodarczyk.
The correct sober assessment and respect for the dangerous skills of the opponent on the part of Gassiev were also noticeable during the battle. And this is not about accurate actions in the ring - neither before nor after the victory over Wlodarczyk, Murat almost did not allow himself at least some manifestation of emotions. As if the fight went too fast, and the boxer simply did not have time to get out of the state of maximum focus. Only the raised right glove of Murat indicated that Gassiev realized his victory.
The Russian professional boxer, IBF world heavyweight champion, as experts said, defeated Krzysztof Wlodarczyk. And he did it more confidently and easier than many expected. But it didn’t happen because of the difference in the level of boxers - Gassiev just turned out to be calm and disciplined enough to realize his superiority to the maximum.
Gassiev knocked out Wlodarczyk in 1/4 WBSS. How it was
Russian boxer Murat Gassiev finished Krzysztof Wlodarczyk and becomes the fourth WBSS semi-finalist, defending the IBF belt along the way!
Starting to work from the second half of the first round, Gassiev slowly increased his advantage. Wlodarczyk moved around the ring quite well at first, throwing counter jabs. However, the movement back and towards Krzysztof clearly indicated the desire of the Pole to drag out the fight into the later rounds. Surely Gassiev also understood this, who, despite a rather restrained start, still quite early began to try to break through an opponent. For certain, Murat's plan is unknown, but the boxer himself admitted that he was ready to spend 12 rounds in the ring. But this was hardly the ideal scenario for Gassiev. Therefore, the restrained and calm control of the fight on the part of our boxer managed to be broken by a couple of Murat's aggressive attacks in three incomplete rounds. In one of these episodes, the Ossetian boxer squeezed Wlodarczyk at the ropes and threw out a series of two left hooks: the first went through the block to the head of the Pole, the second - under the right elbow of Krzysztof. Having missed a strong blow to the body, Wlodarczyk instantly writhed in pain and fell to the floor, holding on to the right hypochondrium. The referee stopped the fight at 1:57 of the third round.
Ahead of Murat Gassiev is waiting for the semi-finals of the boxing super series. The opponent is Yunier Dorticos, an undefeated Cuban who knocked out our Dmitry Kudryashov in the ¼ finals of the WBSS in the second round. In addition to the status of the ½ final of the super series, the fight will have the status of a unification. The IBF and WBA Regular belts will be at stake. In general, another most important fight in the career of Murat Gassiev.