Sabyrkhan defeated Temirzhanov in the battle of the stars in Astana
The final line-ups are confirmed at the second edition of the Elorda International Cup in Astana, Kazakhstan today after all of the semi-finals finished in the busy event. Kazakhstan’s Makhmud Sabyrkhan won the battle of the stars in Astana, he eliminated another World medallist, Serik Temirzhanov.
The Elorda Cup will be a money prize event, all of the gold medallists will earn 700 USD, the silver medallists 400 USD and the two boxers who will take the bronze medals each will get 200 USD from the local organizers. Bahrain, China, India, Japan, host Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan sent boxers to the 2nd edition of the Elorda Cup.
Thailand’s Jutamas Jitpong is a World medallist who amazed in the semi-finals of the women’s bantamweight (54kg) on Day5. The Thai used her counter-attacking style against Kazakhstan’s Anel Sakysh and she controlled all of the exchanges today.
Medallists from top events as China’s Chang Yuan and Kazakhstan Zhaina Shekerbekova met in the battle of the southpaw stars in the next contest. Shekerbekova tried to overcome the Chinese boxer in the attacks and she succeeded several times to win this semi-final.
Kazakhstan’s reigning ASBC Asian Champion at the featherweight (57kg), Karina Ibragimova had longer reach than China’s Xu Zichun and she eliminated the strong rival. Ibragimova’s final opponent at the women’s featherweight (57kg) will be an ASBC U22 medallist Kazakh talent, Viktoriya Grafeyeva who eliminated the veteran Saniya Sultankyzy.
Two contests were held between Kazakhstan and China at the women’s welterweight (66kg) and both won by the local boxers. The Rio Olympics bronze medallist Dariga Shakimova eliminated Yang Liu while Kazakhstan’s new hero Natalya Bogdanova attacked successfully against a World Champion, Gu Hong.
China’s Olympic Games silver medallist Li Qian is a tall boxer at the women’s middleweight (75kg) and she had the technical skills to beat Thailand’s ASBC Asian U22 Champion Baison Manikon. Li Qian will now meet for the gold medal Kazakhstan’s former World Champion Valentina Khalzova in a top final tomorrow.
Bahrain’s ex-Kazakh boxer, the experienced Azat Makhmetov eliminated Uzbekistan’s Youth World Champion Shakhzod Muzafarov in the previous stage of the bantamweight (54kg) and he continued his winning path against Karim Serkebayev today.
The most anticipated contest on Day5 was held between two Kazakh stars, Serik Temirzhanov and Makhmud Sabyrkhan at the featherweight (57kg). The World Champion Sabyrkhan has just moved up from the bantamweight (54kg) and faced the World Championships silver medallist Serik Temirzhanov in the semi-finals. Sabyrkhan was slightly better on the exchanges today and won an important selection fight between them today.
Don’t forget you can keep up with all of the action, news, results and photos by following ASBC on Facebook and Instagram.
ASBC website: www.asbcnews.org
ASBC Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ASBC.Boxing/
ASBC Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/asbc_official/
ASBC Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/BoxingAsian?s=08