IBRAGIMOV DEFEATS HOLYFIELD
By Ron Brashear
Inside Boxing Writer/Columnist

(IB – October 13, 2007) – Sultan Ibragimov (22-0-1, 17 Kos) successfully defended his WBO heavyweight title by winning an unanimous decision (118-110, 117-111, 117-111) over Four-time Heavyweight Champion Evander “The Real Deal” Holyfield (41-9, 27 Kos) in Moscow, Russia.

This fight turned out to be a tactical fight whereas the younger, quicker fighter – Ibragimov, utilized his superior hand-speed and lateral movement to out hustle Evander Holyfield over the course of twelve rounds.

Early on in this fight, it took on the resemblance of the Holyfield vs. Byrd fight of 2002. The southpaw style with lateral movement and a cautious attack by Ibragimov set the stage for the fight and it became all about whether or not Holyfield would ever be able to catch up with Ibragimov and land an effective combination of punches.

Well, in several rounds, Holyfield was able to land some solid right hands but they came in spurts and he wasn’t able to put together combinations to effectively hurt Ibragimov.

To Ibragimov’s credit, he took some very stiff shots from Holyfield and was able to control the distance in the fight from the outside and maintained the necessary discipline not to stand toe-to-toe with the stronger punching Holyfield.

So in essence, Holyfield landed the harder punches but it was Ibragimov that was the busier of the two and controlled the fight by throwing and landing more punches than Holyfield.

There were no knockdowns in this fight and the bout was absent of any WOW factors or moments. However, hats off to Ibragimov for doing what he had to do and by fighting an effective, yet cautious fight with “The Real Deal” Holyfield.

I didn’t see anything that would lead me to believe that Holyfield is thinking retirement because he appeared in great shape and never appeared hurt. If Holyfield decides to continue on in a quest for regaining the championship, he will need to be matched up against an opponent that fights flat-footed and is willing to stand in front of him. The ideal match up to indicate how much he really has left would be if he where to fight Samuel “The Nigerian Nightmare” Peter. Now that would be an awesome action-packed brawl vs. a cautious cat and mouse style of a boxing match.


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Ron Brashear can be contacted at brashear@insideboxing.com, ron@youthofhonor.org
 

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