Mykola Butsenko helped the Otamans

Lausanne, Mar 9, 2014: Mykola Butsenko helped the Otamans completely shut out the challenge form Team Germany in this rescheduled match from Week 2. The result sees Ukraine return to the top of Group A ahead of the Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder who have their last event of the Regular Seasonon Wednesday next week.

The Light Flyweights (46-49kg), Bantamweights (56kg), Light Welterweights (64kg), Middleweights (75kg) and Heavyweights (91kg) contested this match.

Bout of the match

The closest bout on paper was the contest between Germany’s Artem Harutyunyan and Ukraine’s Denys Berinchyk at Light Welterweight. Berinchyk is proving himself to be quite a talented WSB boxer. As a London 2012 Olympic silver medallist, that may seem like a redundant statement, except that the Ukrainian has only been selected on three previous occasions for the Otamans. This was in fact just the first time he has been selected this year and it takes his record to 3-1. Moreover, Harutyunyan is no pushover. He impressed in the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Almaty last year and beat the USA Knockouts emerging new poster-boy Carlos Adames on his WSB debut. Therefore this was a contest and a win of some value to Berinchyk.

Boxer of the match

Mykola Butsenko was in stunning form against Team Germany’s Edgar Walth at Bantamweight. After dominating the first round on points, the Otamans fighter barely gave the commentators a chance to catch their breath before scoring a tremendous Knockout at 1:52 of the second round. The win took his personal record to 4-2 in the WSB and made him the number 7 ranked boxer in his category. At just 22, both his form and his record bode well for the future. Ironically, the win also took his opponent’s record to the perfect inversion of 2-4.

The turning point

Although it could be argued that the turning point in the match was the moment that the Otamans touched down in Frankfurt, it would be fairer to point to the moment when Star Ukranian boxer Dmytro Mytrofanov firmly prevented the Germans from taking even a point and took the number of wins in his record into double figures against Josef Attanjaoui at Middleweight. The great Ukrainian boxer, who boxed for the Mexico Guerreros until Ukraine launched their own franchise, now deserves to be considered among the very top WSB boxers after taking his record to 10-2, with his only losses coming on his debut and to the most successful WSB boxer of all time Sergiy Derevyanchenko last year. He is now unbeaten in his last eight bouts.

Fact/Stat of the match

Tonight’s victory was the 21st occasion this season that a team has won by 5-0 in the WSB. Ukraine have also achieved the feat against Argentina and Algeria but lost to the same margin against rivals, the Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder.

Wrap up

Germany’s Artur Mann and Siarhei Karneyeu had an interesting bout at Heavyweight. The Ukrainian took it on points after winning every round according to all three judges. This brings the Belarusian to 6-0 in the WSB, including a stunning win over World Champion Clemente Russo in Week 4, which was at the time viewed as an upset. Having since added two more victories to his CV, however it seems fairer to state that we have a real talent on our hands here.

Serge Neumann and the Otamans’ Vadym Kudryakov also went toe to toe at Light Flyweight. The victory was great news for the 19 year old Ukrainian who managed to bring his record to 2-2, thus escaping the negative zone. Neumann however has dipped into it and is now at 1-2 in the WSB.

Coming up next

With both teams now through to the Playoffs, the next stage for them is the quarter-finals. Ukraine look set to draw either the Azerbaijan Baku Fires or the Russian Boxing Team whilst Germany are set to take on the defending champions the Astana Arlans Kazakhstan. Hold onto your seats, this is about to get really interesting! —- WSB