Choi Tseveenpurev retains his title for the second time by Terry Dooley Oct 10th 2007

Choi Tseveenpurev retained his WBF Featherweight title on Sunday after a hard fought fight against Ugandan Abdul Tebazalwa at the Tara leisure centre in Shaw. Despite blowing his gasket early, and almost blowing the fight late, Choi retained his title via a split-decision. Tebazalwa, 9-1 (7), bounced out to the ring flanked by two handlers, one of whom looked disturbingly like Roger Waters, carrying flags. On one side the Ugandan flag and on the other side a Scandinavian flag. Choi, 25-4 (17), only had one flag bearer, and therefore one flag; perhaps this deficit in the flag waving stakes prompted his early rounds charge or, most likely, he felt that after crushing Nikoloz Berkatsashvili and David Kiilu in his past two fights he had a chance for another early night. Despite Choi's, 9st, early two-fisted attacks there were signs in the early rounds that Abdul, 9st, could cause damage with his own punches. Tebazalwa has a wiry and sinewy frame, perfect for pitching looping one-two combinations; he caught Choi a few times in the early stages with this combination. Choi racked up points in the early stanzas yet he received a bloody nose and at times, when he missed with his wild shots, had to resort to clinching in-close or simply hurling Abdul to the ground to show his superior strength. It happened often enough to warrant a point deduction but referee Howard Foster took no such recourse. By the middle stages Abdul was starting to work behind his jab. He would create space for his right hand before bowling it over and catching the constantly pressing and mauling Choi. Abdul, though, was also partially undone by his slender frame as the legs of the Ugandan fighter echoed every shot landed by Choi. Already well behind on the scorecards Tebazalwa was not helped by a knockdown in the 6th round. In the 5th round Abdul had blazed at Choi after the bell, a move that did not endear him to the pro-Choi crowd, and it was clear at the start of the 6th that Choi wanted to take the law into his own hands. After taking a few rights Abdul's legs began to betray him, a double 1-2 then put him over for a knockdown that was not heavy. However Choi had worked it, and the round, enough to merit a 10-8. Despite this setback Abdul bounced back to win the next three rounds on the spin as Choi faded from the excessiveness of his early excursions. Right hands from Abdul began to find their mark with more regularity. A Ugandan reporter, for so long a silent spectator, started to wave his fists about as he pleaded with Abdul to get back into the fight. It earned him a ringside rebuke yet it was now clear that the Ugandan fighter was indeed the man gaining control of the rounds. A left hook, right hand and left jab from Abdul moved Choi around a little before a trio of hooks, left right left, stunned the Mongolian momentarily. Perhaps frustrated by the venom of Abdul in these rounds Choi resorted to, again, hurling his opponent to the canvas in round nine. Round ten again saw Abdul start the stronger, he got off with a jab, right uppercut and left hook combination early in the round. This time, however, Choi was prepared to dig his way into the round legally as he pushed his tiring foe backwards with braces of shots. Choi was unable to bring further wrinkles to his style in the rounds he had lost but his second wind was kicking in and bringing the pressure that Abdul had so struggled with earlier in the bout. Choi even went walkabout at one point before spinning Abdul and pot-shotting him with a right hand. It was a case of the heavier hands of Choi versus the sharper shotting of Abdul as the final round rolled around. Abdul was shooting his jab and, despite having some successes, he was shipping a lot of right hands by the final minute or two. It seemed, finally, that this game challenger had run out of steam, consequently he was less eager to commit late in the fight and was bullied by Choi. After a hard fight both embraced and awaited the final scores. A win for Choi seemed the inevitable result. Abdul had taken an age to settle and, once settled, became uncomfortable after only a few rounds of sound boxing. He lost his cohesion earlier than Choi and despite the messy nature of his labour Choi was the man consistently producing work. However there was a strangely split consensus at ringside. For instance, the Ugandan reporter was convinced that his countryman had lost widely, on the other hand a fan of Choi felt that it was too close to call. I only had a moment to express my wonder at the wonderful objectivity of their views as the cards came in quite fast. Judge, and excellent referee, Victor Loughlin scored the fight 114-113 for Abdul, afterwards he said this was on the basis of his work off the jab. The second judge, Phil Thomas, scored the bout 119-110 for Choi. Finally Phil Edwards scored the fight 118-110 for Choi. BBN had it 117-110. Despite the strange nature of the match-up – a fighter with less than ten fights fighting for a world title, this really damages the credibility of the WBF – the fight itself had been exciting and well matched. With this said it also shows that, for all his desire, Choi is doing the right thing in making money defending this title. A step-up in class would be too much for the likeable Mongolian on the evidence of this one-dimensionally fought fight. The undercard kicked off with the pro debut of Dave Murray, 10st 11lb, who defeated David Kehoe, 11st, over six two-minute rounds. Kehoe, now 9-41-3 (3), tried to wildly overpower Murray, who fights out of The Northside gym, early with wild swings and, refreshingly for a debutant, this gave Murray the chance to cover when under fire before getting his own shots working. Kehoe did have the odd success, particularly when Murray retreated excessively away from one swing and then therefore, into range for the next one as Kehoe advanced. Despite this Murray landed some crisp shots to take a deserved 58-57 victory on the scorecard of referee Steve Grey. BBN had it 58-56. Next up came a prematurely curtailed bout as debutant Tommy Hefron, 11st 3lb, defeated Kenroy Lambert, 11st 8lb, by TKO after three rounds of boxing. Hefron, from Oldham, worked off his left hand in the first round before being drawn into a battle with Lambert in round two. Both men landed shots in this round with Hefron looking a little jaded at its end. In round three Hefron got off with his 1-2 as both men again traded shots, yet the most immediately damaging punch was landed by Hefron as a cut appeared over the left eye of Lambert – in truth the round was quite near the knuckle so a clash of heads could also have been the cause of the cut. Despite blinking back blood Luton's Lambert, now 2-4 (0), was making Hefron look ragged despite Hefron sticking out 1-2's. Despite Lamberts good showing his safety was taken into account and the fight was stopped at 0:59 of the 3rd. Another professional debut followed as Darren Askew, fighting out of Joe Pennington's up-and-coming Northside stable, defeated Peter Buckley, 31-246-11 (8), over six samey two-minute rounds. It was not all defence, though, as Peter was occasionally knocked askew by the shots of Darren. Perhaps Peter, 10st 9lb, is getting old, most likely it is more to do with the fact that the young southpaw in front of him was fighting his first fight and wanted to land some shots. There was a sense that Buckley was happy to see the back of this particular debutant. Darren, 10st 2lb, did not seem powerful but his buzzing little shots, despite being skitty early, were accurate and well picked at times. A straight left down the pipe was the pick of the fight as Darren finally got his sea legs under him in the sixth round and settled on his shots. Conversely, for this one fight, Askew's buzzing little shots might have been good for him as Buckley is used to bracing himself against bombs. Finally local hero Darren Stubbs, 13st 5lb, went to war yet again in defeating Hastings Rasani, 13st 9lb, over six two-minute rounds. Stubbs fought another Bonanza type battle with the man he had stopped in January in this same venue. That result had left doubts as the stoppage had seemed premature. This time around there was no dispute, well on the official card, despite the fact that once again Stubbs was eager to engage in an awesome give-and-take brawl. This writer is not complaining, who could forget the fight Stubbs had with Amer Khan in June 2006, Stubbs' compelling attitude towards fighting makes it hard for Stubbs to truly dominate a bout. Stubbs, now 14-4 (6), came out to a loud dance track that contained more than one derogative expression of the female race. His trainer and the shows promoter Jack Doughty – who deplores swearing and has been known to terminate loudspeaker calls for fear of his wife hearing expletives – seemed blissfully aware of the swearwords that were filling the venue. Rasani, who we all know is not a debutant, started brightly, a 1-2 seemed to buckle Stubbs who was then bulled into the ropes. Stubbs saw this as his cue to fire his own 1-2 and this precipitated a prolonged 30-second brawl along the ropes that finished with Stubbs almost being pushed headfirst from the ring. Both men looked vulnerable throughout the bout, Stubbs landed more but there was real danger in the shots of Rasani. When Hastings went to war Stubbs would be momentarily stunned before coming back with his own shots, in this reactive mode he conceded ground a little and allowed Hastings to gather momentum. After five tiring rounds both men were tired but it was Stubbs who drove himself onwards in the final session. Despite negating his own space with his eagerness Stubbs managed to land more jabs in this round as Hastings wilted. BBN had had Stubbs one round down going into this round; therefore our final card read 57-57. It was not to be, though, as referee Steve Grey raised Stubbs' arm for a 59-56 win. There was plenty of graft but no real craft from Stubbs and, despite being 2-0 with Hastings, there was a sense that this was not the definitive ending he wanted. Hastings certainly disagreed with the cards but what could he do; he has been in this position before. Rasani drops to 20-30-1 (16). Photos by Alan Stevenson

Go back Comment on this article | Send to a friend | Print

There are no comments. Click here to be the first who comment on this article.