Mahmutov still European flyweight champion

Wim-Theo van Yperen, The Netherlands

07.03 - Alexander Mahmutov from Russia made a successful fourth defence of his title of the European Boxing Union. He defeated Mimoun Chent from France. The boxing night in Madrid (Spain) was shown live on Euro Sport.

The challenger Mimoun Chent is 27 years old and turned professional in 1995. He is the French champion and had 15 wins and 1 loss on his career record when he entered the ring.

The champion Alexander Mahmutov has a lot more experience than the challenger. Mahmutov, who’s 36 years old, turned professional 1990 and even had a world title fight some years ago. He lost that fight but now he is still near a world title fight because he is top ten ranked for major world titles. He had 37 wins and 6 losses on his record when he squeezed into the ring. He won one of his last three defences of the EBU title inside the distance.

In the first and second round, both boxers were careful and experimenting. Chent tried to keep the fight in the middle of the ring while Mahmutov was dancing and tried to use the space in the ring. After landing a punch or a combination Mahmutov moved away, so I think he tried to show the public what The Noble Art Of Selfdefence stands for: punching while preventing to be hit by the opponent.

Although Chent was maybe more active than Mahmutov in the third round, the champion scored more points. He scored a lot of points with sneaky punches.

In the beginning of the fourth round, Chent landed a great right punch. In this round the challenger, who has a longer reach than Mahmutov, was much more threatening than in the first three rounds.

In the sixth round, the referee interupted the fight many times because Mahmutov was holding Chent very often. Also in this round, Chent was the most active boxer but Mahmutov was still scoring with those sneaky punches.

While the Mahmutov had a bit more points in round 7, Chent had a deep cut near his right eye. Although he had a lot of blood on his face, the challenger kept on fighting and made many great attacks. In the beginning of the eighth round, the referee took a serious look at the injury of Chent but he didn’t stop the fight. Chent again made many great attacks and it was clear that he was searching for a K.O. punch.

A good cutman in the corner of Chent took care that the eye would not bleed anymore and that the challenger could start the round confident. Chent was able to send the champion to the ropes and one time Mahmutov was even out of balance.

Like in the sixth round, the referee interupted the fight very often in the tenth round and the eye of Chent was bleeding again. Although Chent put him under a lot of pressure, Mahmutov scored many points in the eleventh and tent round.

Alexander Mahmutov won the fight on points and is still the European flyweight champion. But it was Mimoun Chent who made more impression on me and I think we have to remember his name.