Knockdown in the first round and total dominance: how Kurbanov interrupted Teixeira and won the 23rd victory in his career

The duel between Magomed Kurbanov and Patrick Teixeira was supposed to take place in December 2021, but since then the bout has been postponed twice.

First, the health problems of the Russian, who felt unwell on the day of the show, prevented, and then sports sanctions against the backdrop of the start of a special operation to protect Donbass.

Obviously, the Brazilian, who wanted to avoid a long downtime, agreed to fight the Mexican journeyman Paul Venezuela Cuesta, but during the second round he hit his opponent on the back of the head and was disqualified.

At this point, it looked like the clash of super-middleweight stars wasn't going to happen for the foreseeable future.

Teixeira could well have lost interest in her due to the absence of the WBO International title at stake, while Kurbanov hardly wanted to fight an opponent who had suffered two defeats in a row, a victory over which no longer guaranteed such serious dividends.

After all, initially he had to face the former interim world champion, who has lost only once since 2017 - to the star Brian Castagno.

As the Russian himself admitted in an interview with RT, he himself considered the fight with the Brazilian a passed stage, but the lack of more interesting opponents forced him to return to this option.

Not all colleagues preferred Kurbanov on the eve of his battle with Teixeira, but the athlete himself was not very worried.

By all appearances, he demonstrated self-confidence, and the bandage worn on his head with the inscription "23-0" served as another confirmation of this.

And already in the first round, he made it clear that he was extremely determined.

For most of the stretch, he superbly defended against long-range attacks from a lanky opponent, and 30 seconds before the gong sent him to the canvas with a crushing right hook to the jaw.

Thus, he not only created a comfortable reserve of two points for himself, but also demonstrated his power right off the bat.

Indeed, until now, only Curtis Stevens has managed to put Patrick on the floor.

Kurbanov's team very cleverly built a plan for the duel.

During the first three rounds, he mainly acted as the second number - he adapted to Teixeira's fighting style and made him miss over and over again.

If the Brazilian's jab relatively often reached the goal, then attempts to develop an attack and deliver an accented blow often ended in failure.

And if the second segment with a big stretch could be given to Patrick due to activity, then in the third Magomed was much stronger.

He worked great with the body and did not allow himself to get hit, and then instantly approached and responded.

The greatest danger was borne by the same right hook, from which the Brazilian could not defend himself in any way.

Starting from the fourth round, Kurbanov increased his activity and already crushed Teixeira himself.

And at first he could not adapt to the changed conditions of the battle.

It was extremely inconvenient for the lanky and long-armed Brazilian to beat on the waste.

He could not find a distance convenient for himself, and he also failed to keep his counterparts from approaching him with a jab.

And exchanges on the near ended badly for him in most cases.

The quicker and faster Magomed skillfully alternated blows “on the floors” and strengthened his advantage.

In the second half of the battle, the situation did not change much.

Is that the Russian began to experiment too much and thereby give chances to the opponent.

In the sixth segment, Kurbanov tried to box in the left-handed stance, but not very successfully, and in the next, both staged an uncompromising cutting at close range.

Moreover, Teixeira acted as its initiator.

It is curious that it was after this that he had cuts on both eyebrows and a hematoma under his right eye.

Bleeding also opened in Magomed, but the cutman quickly corrected the situation.

In the remaining rounds, Kurbanov did not slow down, but still made his fans a little worried.

Despite the advice of coaches, he continued to rush forward, but over time, this ceased to bring him dividends.

On the contrary, in one of the episodes, he rushed at Teixeira so recklessly that he not only missed the oncoming hook, but also launched the opponent behind his back.

Fortunately, the blow was not strong, and the loss of position did not lead to serious consequences.

But even this did not prevent him from winning a landslide victory.

All three judges sided with Kurbanov, and noted his total superiority in the ring.

The most generous of them gave Teixeira three rounds out of ten, but the knockdown still did not allow him to avoid defeat.

Magomed won (99:90, 98:91, 97:92) and extended his unbeaten streak to 23 fights.

Among other things, as part of the boxing show in Yekaterinburg, other star Russian boxers also won.

Pavel Silyagin easily dealt with the Mexican traveler Jose de Jesus Macias and won the 11th fight in his career, and Evgeny Tishchenko defeated compatriot Kureysh Sagov.

The battle ended in the fourth round after the opponent of the Olympic champion Rio de Janeiro suffered an elbow injury and was unable to continue the battle.

Unlike him, the bronze medalist of the Tokyo Games Gleb Bakshi only made his debut in professional boxing, but he did it more than spectacularly.

Already at the 23rd second, he knocked down Manuk Dilanyan with a furious left hook, and 40 seconds later he celebrated success.

The referee was not ready to look at the beating of his opponent and stopped the fight.