Lausanne, Feb 8, 2014: The USA Knockouts may well prove to be the surprise package of Group A after notching up yet another stylish home win.
Miami is becoming something of a fortress for the American outfit with the Algeria Desert Hawks the latest team to fall at its gates on Week 8. Importantly, the win moves the Knockouts ahead of Team Germany into the third place, with just two matches left in the Regular Season. Could the USA find themselves in the Playoffs for the second time in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) history?
The Light Flyweights (46-49kg), Bantamweights (56kg), Light Welterweights (64kg), Middleweights (75kg) and Heavyweights (91kg) contested this match.
Bout of the match
Josh Temple of the USA Knockouts took on Algerian Desert Hawks star boxer Chouaib Bouloudinats at Heavyweight. Temple was making his WSB debut against a man with 17 bouts worth of experience. That didn’t stop him from putting on an excellent show. Bouloudinats however had the experience to out-gun the powerful American with both men landing enormous blows throughout the fight.
Boxer of the match
23 year old Mohamed Flissi of Algeria is a London 2012 Olympian, current World silver medallist and the WSB number three ranked Light Flyweight. Thus it was a serious upturn for the books when relatively unknown Anthony Chacon from Puerto Rico beat him by TKO in round two. Chacon however, did make it to the quarter-finals of the World Championships last year, where it took eventual World Champion Birzhan Zhakypov of Kazakhstan to stop him. Tellingly, looking into both fighters eyes at the beginning of the match, Flissi seemed nervous whilst the Latin American boxer looked very up for the challenge. Despite that, it was Flissi who drew the proverbial first blood when he scored a knock down with one of his trademark hook combinations. Chacon was un-phased however and at the end of the round, he stung Flissi with a hard right hand which put him on wobbly legs just before the bell tolled. In the opening moments of the second round, he caught Flissi on the counter again with another stunning right hand to drop him. No sooner was the Desert Hawk back on his feet than the Knockouts boxer overwhelmed him with the referee calling the fight off. It was a huge win for Chacon, who now goes 2-0 in the WSB.
The turning point
Once Middleweight Marlo Delgado Suarez of Ecuador took on Ilyas Abbadi of the Algeria Desert Hawks, the night really swung in the USA’s favour. With a walk over at Light Welterweight, the win in here meant that the USA captured all the points and leapfrogged Team Germany in the table. Suarez’ performance however was in itself exceptional. Abbadi is one of the top Algerian boxers; a London 2012 Olympian with a WSB record (coming into this bout) of 4-1. For the new Knockouts boxer, to have mixed it up so successfully with him shows that he is a real find for the USA team.
Wrap up
Steven Fulton got the first win of his WSB career to take his record to 1-1 against Samir Brahimi who has now lost all six of his WSB bouts, despite making it to the last 16 of the London Olympic Games.
Unfortunately for Algeria, one of their main boxers Abdelkader Chadi was ruled out at a late stage, which gave a walk over victory to the USA’s Carlos Adames at Light Welterweight.
Coming up next
The Algeria Desert Hawks face the Argentina Condors at home whilst the USA Knockouts will be playing host to Team Germany in an extremely important match for both teams.
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