Astana Arlans Kazakhstan extended their Group C lead to five points on Saturday night with an emphatic display against China Dragons.
The two-time champions have been in electrifying form so far in Season VII, and will take some catching on the evidence of their third straight win of the campaign, while China Dragons remain in third place with three points.
An entertaining Light Flyweight (49kg) bout began proceedings, with the Arlans’ experienced Temirtas Zhussupov looking to assert himself on China Dragons’ talented He Junjun. The two boxers stalked each other in a tactical opening round but, as the contest wore on, Zhussopov increasingly engaged Junjun, forcing the Chinese to counter and leaving himself exposed to some devastating combinations, which earned the Kazakh a unanimous points win and set the home side on their way.
That was to be the closest the visitors came to a win, with Kazakhstan’s London 2012 Olympian Ilyas Suleimenov then showing his form once again to take all five rounds in a comprehensive win over Wang Long at Bantamweight (56kg). The new-look Kazakh squad called upon Dilmurat Mizhitov to continue their remarkable dynasty of Light Welterweight (64kg) success stories against Liu Yang in the night’s third bout, the 21-year-old getting off to a strong start and twice putting Yang on the canvas in the fourth in a comfortable victory.
At 3-0 up, the points secured and the Arlans looking unstoppable, Saparbay Aidarov made his debut against Dragons’ Zhao Minggang at Middleweight (75kg). The Kazakh southpaw took the lead early on and, as he looks to establish a regular place in the team, continued to keep his opponent at bay as he found the rhythm that earned a unanimous points win from the Judges.
That left Kazakhstan’s Asian Games winner and Asian Confederation Champion Anton Pinchuk to complete the 5-0 whitewash with a dominant display against China Dragons’ Belarusian import Siarhei Novikau. Just as he had on debut in Moscow a few weeks ago, Pinchuk quickly found his best fighting distance, leaving Novikau chasing shadows and unable to land enough meaningful punches to gain a foothold on the bout, the hosts completing another successful night as they keep themselves on course for the Play-Off stages.
