Grozny, Russia – Umar Salamov celebrated his Grozny homecoming with fireworks. The lanky fighter made easy work of Ghanaian Emmanuel Danso, stopping him at 2:44 of the third to retain his WBO International light heavyweight title.
Short and stocky Danso, though powerful (now 31-5, 28 KOs), was no match to the power and skill asset of the WBO #4 /IBF #6 / WBA #10 rated contender. Salamov softened up Danso in the first before rocking him badly with a right hand in the closing seconds.
The Chechen continued to dominate in the second. In the third he first dropped the smaller African with two consecutive right hands. Then closed the show on another right hand. Salamov is now 25-1, 19 KOs.
WBO #8 super middleweight Aslambek Idigov was forced to work very hard to overcome tough resistance of Czech and Slovakian national champion Robert Racz (21-2, 19 KOs). He got the job done through sweat and pain, scoring a unanimous decision – 98-94, 97-93, and 98-92 – and thus retaining his WBO European and IBF European 168lb titles.
Idigov, 23, was the one who pressed forward early on, trying to overwhelm Racz. The Slovakian was up for the task, countering Idigov hard every time he found an opening.
Idigov was rocked a couple of times in the opening rounds but prevailed just narrowly through his pressure and ultimately desire to prevail. As rounds went by, Idigov got more successful and used finesse he lacked early on to frustrate capable and durable but slow opponent. Racz still was dangerous but his offensive outbursts got less frequent by the end of the fight.
Via Alexey Sukachev / BoxingScene.com