Iron Man: Russian boxer Gassiev knocked out Pole Wlodarczyk and defended his world title. Iron Man: Russian boxer Gassiev knocked out Pole Wlodarczyk and defended his world champion title Zagassil

Since Murat Gassiev is only 24 and a little more than a year ago, you most likely did not know who he was, it is generally accepted that his career was just beginning. Therefore, every new challenge, starting with the fight with Denis Lebedev, is regarded as the biggest challenge on the sports path of the Ossetian fighter. This was the case with the fight with Krzysztof Wlodarczyk.

This time, a test awaited Gassiev not only and not so much in the ring. And it started long before they entered its perimeter. The fact is that everyone - from experts to bookmakers - considered Wlodarczyk an almost hopeless underdog. The latter accepted bets on the victory of the former world champion in two versions and the offender of two Russians with odds of 9.20. For Conor McGregor, who made his debut in the ring in a fight with the best boxer of the generation, the odds closer to the fight were around 5.0. This is for comparison.

Having become a star literally overnight, until early this 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 obvious advantages of the younger Gassiev, it was completely unclear why everyone suddenly wrote off the former WBC and IBF world champion, who had not lost since 2014. Krzysztof seemed quite happy with all this.

“The fact that Gassiev is the favorite is 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, it seems, really 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’s ready for a big fight and I’m sure it’ll be a great fight on Saturday.” I don't want to think about a potential fight with Dorticos. He can be great, but I am completely focused on Wlodarczyk.”

Iron against the Devil. Last fight of 1/4 finals of WBSS 1st heavyweight

We are talking about the fight between Murat Gassiev and Krzysztof Wlodarczyk.

Gassiev’s correct, sober assessment and respect for his opponent’s dangerous skills were noticeable during the fight. And this is not about careful actions in the ring - Murat, neither before nor after his victory over Wlodarczyk, almost did not allow himself any manifestation of emotions. It was as if the fight went by too quickly, and the boxer simply did not have time to get out of the state of maximum focus. Only Murat's raised right glove indicated that Gassiev realized his victory.

The Russian professional boxer, IBF world champion in the first heavyweight division, as experts said, defeated Krzysztof Wlodarczyk. And he did it more confidently and easily than many expected. But this did not happen because of the difference in the level of the boxers - Gassiev simply turned out to be calm and disciplined enough to realize his superiority to the maximum.

Gassiev knocked out Wlodarczyk in the 1/4 WBSS. How it was

Russian boxer Murat Gassiev finished Krzysztof Wlodarczyk and becomes the fourth WBSS semi-finalist, simultaneously defending the IBF belt!

Starting to work from the second half of the first round, Gassiev slowly increased his advantage. At first, Wlodarczyk moved well around the ring, throwing counter jabs. However, the movement back and towards Krzysztof clearly indicated the Pole’s desire to drag the fight into the later rounds. Surely Gassiev also understood this, who, despite a rather restrained start, still began to try to break through his opponent quite early. Murat’s plan is not known for certain, but the boxer himself admitted that he was ready to spend 12 rounds in the ring. But this was hardly an ideal scenario for Gassiev. Therefore, the restrained and calm control of the fight on the part of our boxer in three incomplete rounds managed to be disrupted by a couple of aggressive attacks from Murat. In one of these episodes, the Ossetian boxer pinned Wlodarczyk against the ropes and threw a series of two left hooks: the first went through a block to the Pole’s head, the second under Krzysztof’s right elbow. Having missed a strong blow to the body, Wlodarczyk instantly winced in pain and fell to the floor, holding his right hypochondrium. The referee stopped the fight at 1:57 of the third round.

The semi-final of the boxing super series awaits Murat Gassiev ahead. The opponent is Yunier Dorticos, an undefeated Cuban who knocked out our Dmitry Kudryashov in the WBSS quarter finals in the second round. In addition to the status of a ½ final of the super series, the match will have unification status. The IBF and WBA Regular belts will be at stake. In general, another one of the most main fight in the career of Murat Gassiev.

The star of Russian Murat Gassiev, nicknamed Iron, rose on the boxing horizon in December 2016, when the 24-year-old native of Vladikavkaz defeated Denis Lebedev on points and took the International Boxing Federation (IBF) world champion belt from his compatriot in the first heavyweight division (up to 90, 7 kg).

After this, Gassiev and Lebedev unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a rematch. Murat eventually signed up to participate in the World Super Series (WBSS), a new tournament that uses a playoff system that is unusual for professional boxing. Quarterfinal opponent young participant The competition was attended by an experienced boxer - 36-year-old Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, nicknamed the Devil, who had 57 fights under his belt (53 wins, three losses and one draw).

Every new fight is important and special for any boxer. Gassiev and Wlodarczyk were no exception. For the Russian, this was the first title defense 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 held the IBF (2006-2007) and WBC (2010-2014) championship belts.

However, Wlodarczyk did not attach of great importance upcoming fight. “It’s unlikely that the fight with Gassiev will be the most important in my career,” the Polish athlete assured. — Its significance lies in the fact that it is titular. I am motivated by the opportunity to become the first Pole to win the championship title three times. This is a chance for me to make history. The fact that Gassiev is the favorite is additional pressure on my opponent. I have nothing to lose. I have the strength to knock out Gassiev.”

The Russian was more restrained, but noted that it would be nice to resolve everything ahead of schedule, and not leave the fate of the meeting in the hands of the judiciary. “Of course, every boxer wants to finish the fight with a knockout, so that there are no questions left for the judges. But things don’t always work out as planned. You need to give your best and do everything to win,” Gassiev said in .

From the very beginning of the fight, the roles were clearly distributed: Gassiev acted as number one and acted as the aggressor, and Wlodarczyk intended to catch his opponent with counter blows. The Russian sought to avoid the later rounds, where his opponent feels like a duck to water.

Gassiev started without reconnaissance, and already from the second three minutes his advantage grew by geometric progression. It seemed that only a miracle would save the Polish boxer from being knocked out. But it didn't happen. In the third round, Gassiev carried out another attack, sending a left to the head, and then hit him directly in the liver, after which Wlodarczyk was unable to recover. He recovered only for the post-match interview, although he still continued to keep his glove in the liver area.

“It all started when I tried to block an uppercut to the head. The previous blows were hard, but not the kind that could knock me out. We prepared to avoid such attacks, but it did not help. They 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 was preparing 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, 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 of division champions defeating title challengers. Earlier, Ukrainian Alexander Usik (WBO world champion), Cuban Yunier Dorticos (WBA), who knocked out Russian Dmitry Kudryashov, and Latvian representative Mairis Briedis (WBC) made their way into the quartet of the strongest. All semi-final participants are undefeated in the professional ring.

Gassiev’s next opponent will be Dorticos, who was present at the Russian’s 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 glances.

Their fight was supposed to take place back in March 2015, but was first postponed and then completely cancelled. Now there are no obstacles to the battle. The boxers are scheduled to meet in early 2018. And now Gassiev will not only hold his 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 finals, where the title will be contested absolute champion world first heavyweight.

Extinguished. How Gassiev defeated Wlodarczyk

As expected by the entire progressive public, the IBF world champion in the up to 90.7 kg category, Russian Murat Gassiev, “extinguished” the ex-champion of Poland, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, and reached the semi-finals of the tournament of the eight strongest boxers in this weight. But only the very avant-garde part of this most progressive public assumed (and now we can say - knew) that he would do it so easily.

Articles | Maxim Vlasov: Wlodarczyk has grown old, but Gassiev must be given his due

It’s hard to spread a big thought over a small tree, but the two and a half rounds that this fight lasted gave us a lot 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 Wlodarczyk essentially losing the fight in the first round, when he unconditionally lost the duel with 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 afraid of his opponent. Apparently, he quickly realized that he shouldn’t even miss jabs from Gassiev, not to mention everything else, and generally stopped understanding what to do other than try to catch Murat on a counterattack, but he quickly became convinced that these counterattacks are more dangerous for himself than for Gassiev.

Conclusion two. Gassiev has grown a lot as a boxer since his fight with Denis Lebedev. He was not at all straightforward, although in this case he could afford it, since Wlodarczyk clearly wanted to have as little in common with the straightforward one as possible. Gassiev constantly deceived Wlodarczyk, caught him on the counter move and remarkably trained the Pole for a knockout blow, teaching him to hit the head, including from below, and after another left uppercut he threw a terrible left blow to the body in the liver area, and the blow This one did not look crazy or random, but very clearly planned. Moreover, in this case, it is absolutely not important whether Gassiev came up with all this himself or carried out the coaching instructions. The only important thing is how he performed it, and he performed it beyond all praise. When Wlodarczyk fell and lay motionless, I think many of their livers ached from this difficult sight. Almost like a hawthorn prick on my tongue. What was it like for Wlodarczyk himself? I just really didn’t want to be in his place.