By Alexey Sukachev

Max Bursak’s “British Voyage” isn’t getting any easier with each fought contest. After scoring a relatively close win over Prince Arron in a voluntary defense of his EBU middleweight title in July, the 29-year old Ukrainian came just a couple of rounds short of his second career loss, while escaping narrowly with a unanimous decision over another unheralded Brit Nick Blackwell. The bout took place at the Locomotiv Arena in Kharkiv, Ukraine, this past Saturday under K2 Ukraine Promotions.

“The Tiger” Bursak (now 28-1-1, 12 KOs) was floored for the first time in his career in round four. All three judges (Manuel Olivier Palomo, Pierluiggi Poppi and Ove Ovesen) had it for the local fighter: 115-112 (twice) and 114-112. Referee was Mikael Hook.

“This fight was damn hard for me. My opponent was young, fresh, skillful and very willing. If he continues to develop this fast, he will soon be found to be the next star in making”, praised WBA/WBO #5, WBC #10 and IBF #13 rated Bursak his 22-year old opponent, who falls down to 13-3, 6 KOs, with close losses to Bursak and Billy Joe Saunders and a decisive one – to Martin Murray.

“I have never been floored before, and I just hope I won’t be floored in the near future as well – it was a harsh experience”.

The bout had some controversy over it too. It was first been reported as the European title defense for the champion, then other reports started to flow, and finally the bout was announced as somewhat strange WBA Continental title, for whatever it means.

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WBO #10 and former WBA light heavyweight world title challenger Vyacheslav Uzelkov (29-3, 18 KOs) made a short work of mismatched Hungarian Attila Palko (16-8, 13 KOs), eliminating him within a round.

Rising Chechen light heavyweight Umar Salamov (7-0, 6 KOs) scored two second-round knockdowns before a stoppage win over Belarussian Dmitry Adamovich (15-30, 7 KOs) was announced.

Russian heavyweight Vladimir Tereshkin (17-0-1, 8 KOs) stopped Hungarian veteran Laszlo Toth (19-10, 13 KOs) in two with a visible ease.

It took rising lightweight Valentyn Holovko (20-0, 14 KOs) just 205 seconds to overwhelm Georgian import Ruben Movsesian (10-10-1, 9 KOs). Movsesian was hurt badly with body shots and dropped twice.

Azerbaijani Fariz Mamedov (14-1-1, 8 KOs) halted Belarussian trialhorse Alexander Abramenko (17-38-1, 6 KOs) in three. Abaramenko was down twice after frenetic body punches by Mamedov in the third round.

Coming after a year off, still undefeated welterweight Valery Brazhnik (30-0-1, 17 KOs) got a unanimous decision over six against another Georgian Georgy Abramishvili (8-4-1, 4 KOs).

Other results:

Mishiko Beselia (4-0, 2 KOs) TKO 2 Dmytro Bogachuk (6-16-1, 3 KOs)

Ivan Tkachenko (1-0, 1 KO) TKO 3 Denis Nedashkovskiy (0-1)