37-year-old mild heavyweight Igor Mikhalkin celebrated his greatest and most vital victory within the final 4 years on Saturday night. In Moscow, Mikhalkin stepped into the ring in opposition to favourite Dilmurod Satybaldiev in a ten spherical bout – and gained a convincing unanimous determination.
Mikhalkin was booked for the battle on quick discover and jumped in with out hesitation. With solely two weeks of preparation time, during which the southpaw was already sparring, he was capable of totally reveal his class as an underdog and shocked the favourite, who lately stopped Maxim Vlasov.
The commentators additionally praised Mikhalkin’s good boxing faculty and the agility of the previous IBO world mild heavyweight champion. Even a headbutt within the tenth and final spherical did not cease the ECB boxer from attaining a sovereign and unanimous level win.
After his defeat in opposition to Mathieu Bauderlique in September of final yr, Mikhalkin is again simply as surprisingly and after greater than a yr of being away from the ring and is as soon as once more knocking on the door of the world’s high mild heavyweights. A rematch with Bauderlique is predicted within the not-so-distant future.
Mikhalkin said after the battle: “It feels actually good to have crushed such a robust man. I did not really feel uncomfortable for a second and was capable of present my dominance.”
Promoter Erol Ceylan: “Igor accepted the battle on very quick discover. He was booked for sparring, however in opposition to a southpaw and subsequently not fully untrained. This success is all the higher – after which in opposition to the present or in all probability former quantity six on this planet!”