Senchenko destroys Elwell in two!
Kashtanov and Efimovich score impressive victories

March 26, 2008

By Alexey Sukachev and Anton Gorunov

Huge boxing show, promoted by the Union Box Promotions, ended several hours ago at Druzhba Sport Palace in Donetsk, Ukraine. In the featured bout of the evening highly regarded local hero Vyacheslav Senchenko (26-0, 19 KOs) soundly annihilated untested and totally unprepared Brit Stuart Elwell (11-2, 2 KOs) in the second round of his initial defense of the WBA intercontinental title in 147lbs.

Senchenko, currently rated #11 by the WBA, started this bout in slow pace, trying his jab against active but very raw Elwell. It seemed after the first round that the fight would definitely need some time to heat up; however, the end occurred much sooner. Early in round two Ukrainian bomber wobbled his foe with the straight right. Elwell was lucky to survive when Senchenko lost his balance soon thereafter during the reckless pursuit. It didn’t last too long though. In his next attack Ukrainian delivered a stormy right to the body that sent Brit to the canvas. Elwell beat the count on shaky legs only to be stopped moments later after Senchenko’s relentless pounding at the ropes. Huge win for Senchenko who is gunning for an eventual title shot against fellow unbeaten compatriot and the WBA interim welterweight titlist Yuri Nuzhnenko from K2 East.

One of Ukrainian brightest young talents Stanislav Kashtanov (22-0, 13 KOs), 23, defended his WBC Youth belt in super middleweight division for the last time (being too old to wear youth crown in future) and did it in impressive fashion. Kashtanov, WBC #14, came out blazing and soon had his fellow undefeated Brazil opponent Jailson Morais da Silva (10-1, 8 KOs) in huge trouble in corner. Morais tried to come out of tricky position but was promptly nailed with the horrific combo of straight right and left hook. Down he went for the count suffering a hard knockout in the very first round. Kashtanov is expected to land top tens pretty soon.

WBO #5 featherweight Oleg Efimovich (13-1, 9 KOs) showed his frightening power once again in the fourth-round kayo of Spanish national champion Juan Garcia Martin (15-4-2, 8 KOs). Efimovich, who has only lost to undefeated Uzbek Olympian Alisher Rakhimov in his fourth fight, used his double left hooks to constantly decrease Spaniard’s defensibility. In round two Oleg threw a terrific right to the liver which seemed at first to have no effect on Martin. In round four, however, he was forced to take a knee after another powerful body shot. Efimovich finally de-livered his opponent moments later to score a clear knockout victory and to retain his WBO intercontinental title.

Lightweight Andrey Kudriavtsev (26-4, 11 KOs) showed he still has it in him with the TKO 6 over Martino Ciano (6-4-1, 2 KOs). Also featherweight Stanislav Merdov (22-5, 16 KOs) scored two knockdowns over Pavel Matsyuk (0-2) on his way to seventh-round TKO.

Note: Anton Gorunov is a Fightnews.com Ukrainian representative and the RING Ukraine feature writer.