Choi Tseveenpurev retains WBF Featherweight title and calls out Morales by Terry Dooley Mar 12th 2007

Popular Choi Tseveenpurev retained his WBF Featherweight title yesterday in Shaw by destroying Georgia's Nikoloz Berkatsashvili in four one-sided rounds. Clearly imbued with confidence over his victory Choi then wasted no time in serving notice that he is willing to fight any UK featherweight before going a step further by announcing that he is able, ever-ready and most definitely willing to travel to the States and fight either Erik Morales or Marco Antonio Barrera. Clearly Choi is spoiling for a fight, any fight, and was hyped-up after a win over a Georgian export who folded under a concerted body-attack. Jack Doughty's Shaw promotions are, warmly, referred to by Manchester fight figures as being of the spit and sawdust variety. Todays show featured a few decent scraps served-up with locally cooked Lancashire hotpot (sold in the bar and highly recommended if you are at the next show) and garnished with a few stoppage finishes. First on the menu was Lee Noble, now 6-2 (1), who beat Birmingham based Pole Magic Kidem, now 1-4 (0), on points over four two-minute rounds in the super-middleweight division. Kidem was not a serious threat and he must have left his wand at home because he failed to produce any moments of magic over the course of the fight. Noble, ably assisted by advice from Dominic Ingle, made some in-roads into the body of Kidem in the first round before bringing his combinations, although some punches were slapped, into the fight in round two. A right hook and left hook to the body was followed by a right hand that sent the sweat spraying from Kidem's cranium. Noble ate a double jab in the final round before turning southpaw and cracking Magic with ignoble relish, a dip of the legs precipitated a solid right hand to the body that sent Magic scurrying backwards. This was clearly the punch of the fight in a bout Noble won by a margin of 40-36 on the card of referee Keith Garner. BBN had it scored by the same margin. Next up was Shinny Bayaar, now 10-4-1 (3), who took on the Peter Buckley, now a remarkable 31-239-11 (8) over a six two-minute rounds fight. Peter is a boxing institution; MC Michael Pass gave the quintessential journeyman a eulogy in the introductions. For most people Peter Buckley is recorded in boxing lore, with all due respect, as L6; fighters who face him are not beaten before they enter the ring yet they do seem to be under the impression that they cannot KO him and fight accordingly. Not the Mongolian marauder Bayaar, though, who ripped into Buckley throughout the bout and forced Peter to open fire at times just to keep Shinny off him. Bayaar, a southpaw, was scoring frequently with left hands through the middle as well as right hooks to the head and body of Buckley. Peter responded with enough left hooks and right hands to keep Shinny honest throughout, both men landed relatively heavily in round four before Shinny busied himself to a 60-54 win. Again BBN agreed with the official assessment. In the third bout young super-bantamweight prospect Stuart McFadyen, now 5-0 (1), took a decisive and hard-fought win over little Mo Khalid to keep his voracious fans happy. Stuart came out throwing orthodox one-twos to negate the slippery Ingle style of Khalid. Khalid extended his right hand in homage to the lead drawing leads of Junior Witter yet as one ringside wag remarked Khalid had the moves of Prince Naseem Hamed and the punch of Prince Charles (that would be the would-be monarch, not the former IBF light-heavyweight champion). Interestingly Stuart seemed to be leading with his right hand in order to avoid the counter shots over his left jab. A right hand to the body was followed by a left hook to the head in the second round, a further left hook later in the round rocked Mo's head a little, a right uppercut also zipped in and, strangely, Mo seemed to put less into this round than the, admittedly, little he had put into round one. In the third Mo put a harder stint into the fight. He began with a left hook that landed cleanly on McFadyen, Stuart replied with a jab but Khalid picked some nice punches this round before building on this in round four. Khalid landed a body shot and a left in the fourth, McFadyen slipped to the canvas shortly afterwards and an optimistic cry of “knockdown” went up from Dominic Ingle only for the ref to overlook it. It seemed the right decision, Stuart was not put down by the punches themselves or their after-effects. In this round Khalid brought his left uppercut to the party and scored well. Despite hauling himself into the fight Mo made the mistake of extending his left arm in the corner, perhaps to draw a lead, and instead drew fire that he could not respond to. McFadyen did feel the final round though; Khalid hit Stuart more in this round than any other round I have seen in McFadyen's career. The left uppercut was particularly effective in this session, as was the right uppercut of Mo. At times, though, Khalid would look away as he threw the shots and this left him wide-open for McFadyen to reply in kind. It was Mo's round though, as the swollen eye of McFadyen would attest after the fight was over. The referees' scorecard of 59-56 led to a few words of protest from Ingle, BBN had the fight 59-55 to McFadyen. So far the day had been controversy-free yet contention duly arrived as, it seemed, Darren Stubbs was the beneficiary of a premature stoppage call by referee Howard Foster who decided that Hastings Rasani, twice a Commonwealth title challenger, was not fit to continue after touching down in the fifth round of a super-middleweight fight that was shaping up nicely. Stubbs, now 12-4 (5), fought a small-hall thriller last year when fighting Amer Khan, despite losing that fight on points Stubbs had enthralled the crowd, plus this writer, that day with his stubborn resistance and today it was a case of more of the same from Stubbs. Hastings, now 20-28-1 (16), was billed as a banger and he did possess a sturdy looking punching technique, it is not the crisp punching, say, of a Thomas Hearn's yet his meaty swings were moving Stubbs around the ring over the course of the first round. Hastings hit Stubbs with a left hook to the body and a left hook to the head that prompted a clean right hand at the rounds end by Stubbs. I made the note ‘Stubbs = here we go again' at the end of the round, a round that, overall, Hastings took with his committed punching. Stubbs came out behind the jab and threw some solid right hands in the second round before a brawl erupted on the ropes, a combo from Stubbs prompted a left hook, right hook and right hand to the body by Hastings, I hesitate to call it a combination because the man was loading up so heavily there was a big gap between each shot. Stubbs popped through quicker shots in the third round and a highly technical piece of advice floated out from the crowd as some lass shouted “fooking ‘ave it Carl, hit ‘im!”. Perhaps enlightened Carl obliged with a right uppercut followed by a couple of hooks - right and left. Stubbs bullied Hastings to the ropes a few times in this round yet was forced to disengage a few times under Hastings heavy punches. Hastings took the round. Still he looked a little leggy as he came out for the fourth, I felt his moment had passed, if it had ever arrived, and Stubbs mixed-up some jabbing with some bodywork and a few left hooks. Hastings was missing shots now and, as any fighter will tell you, hitting thin air is tiring and extremely unhelpful in the context of winning a fight. Hastings had his final hurrah in the fifth; a one-two too the body followed by a right uppercut saw Stubbs reply with his own uppercut then a chopping, short, right hand down the pipe sent Hastings crashing back into his corner. Rasani covered-up tiredly and took two shots yet it was quite a surprise when referee Howard Foster jumped in at 1:03 of the round without waiting for a reply from Hastings. It was a tad premature and cruel on Rasani, the fight had turned against him yet BBN, as well as the ref, had the fight dead level at the time of the stoppage. Rasani still had some pop, ultimately the referee did what he thought was right yet it prevented a final few thrills being squeezed out of a fight that had shaped-up nicely. The penultimate fight ended unsatisfactorily as Karl Taylor was stopped in three rounds due to a badly cut nose and left eye, the cut on the eye was just outside the bridge of the nose and although it was not the worst this writer has ever seen Karl's face was a mask of blood and his young opponent, Chris Johnson, now 2-1 (1), was throwing slashing, if light, punches throughout the bout. Chris' cutting, swift shots cut Karl up in the second round and a few direct hits in the third – particularly the straighter shots – caused Karl's cuts to piss blood. A wipe of his face in the corner cleansed him briefly but the blood seeped through immediately and the fight was halted with Karl sat on his stool. The scene was now set for transplanted Mongolian Choi Tseveenpurev (with respect I have typed his surname once, that is enough), now 24-4 (17), who thrilled his vocal fans by beating Nikoloz Berkatsashvili (once is enough for this chaps surname also, I do not get paid for overtime, in fact I do not get paid full-stop) in four rounds. Choi came in on the division limit of 9st and his countryman Shinny Bayaar escorted him to the ring holding aloft the WBF title Choi so cherishes. Nikoloz, or Nick as I would prefer to call him, looked slight in comparison despite only weighing a half-pound less than Choi, proof, once again, that two men with the same weight need not have the same physiology; Choi dwarfed him in muscular terms and stature. Choi started slowly, he threw his right hand to the body with purpose before bringing it over to the head. Tseveenpurev did try to blitz Nikoloz along the ropes late in the first but the Georgian covered-up tightly. Choi came out with the same patient aggression in the second round; in this round both men hit a lot of glove yet Choi was the one who transcended this problem by dipping his legs and going to the body instead. In many ways the fight was reminiscent of the last time I saw Choi live (as he beat David Kiilu in three rounds to win the WBF title). Nikoloz was being broken-down by a bigger featherweight, his corners frantic in-round advice brought nothing but a warning from a BBBoC steward and by the third Choi was bringing jabs and a right uppercut through the guard. A left hook to the body took the wind out of Nikoloz's sails and a left hook sailed over his head as he went down for the eight-count. The end had begun or so it had seemed, surprisingly though Choi went headhunting for the remainder of the round despite his pre-eminence being built on basement work. The Georgian bravely tried to fire back as the round ended but got clipped, as well as a bloody nose, for his troubles. When the end came in round four it was one for the drawer marked ‘oddity'. Nikoloz flicked out a few tame jabs, a left hook again sank into his body and he took another count. This time his fear of being hit to the body caused him to move away from Choi with a half-arsed guard that defended neither his body nor his head. Clearly he was looking for a way out and Choi gave it him by hitting him with three left hooks to the head, two definitely landed cleanly and were followed by a touchdown. Referee Mickey Vann wisely dispensed with the count, then, rather unwisely, ruled that Nikoloz had slipped to the canvas. This was not the chicken and the egg scenario; the Georgian was punched to the head and went to the canvas looking disconsolate. Vann declared a slip and sent the Georgian out for the slaughter, Choi threw some shots a few of them landed clean and Nikoloz hit the deck. This time the count was called off, as was the fight and Choi had retained his title in 1:55 of the fourth. For the record the judges were Phil Edwards, Howard Foster and Dave Paris, ably assisted by Choi's left, and his right, hand. Photos: Allan Stevenson

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