By Alexey Sukachev

Moscow, Russia - A new player has broken through to the elite class of the light welterweights as "King" Khabib Allakhverdiev (17-0, 8 KOs) brutally stopped experienced South African Kaizer Mabuza (24-9, 16 KOs) within four rounds of a one-sided fight. Allakhverdiev, who was ranked #11 by the WBA, is now he IBO light welterweight champion of the world.

Mabuza, 32, who got upset wins over Sergey Fedchenko and Kendall Holt in his past, was visibly bigger and heavier than his opponent. However, southpaw Allakhverdiev, 29, proved to be a much harder hitter and a faster fighter. He boxed around his slow opponent peppering him with the jab and adding right uppercuts on the occasion. Allakhverdiev, who is trained by Kostya Tszyu, looked very much like his legendary mentor - not in terms of his level (he still has tons to learn about prizefighting) but in terms of his style and his look in the ring. At the end of round one he stormed over Mabuza and put him down with a combination of punches.

Rounds two and three were both in Khabib's favor. Mabuza's right hands were sparse and seemed to place no effect on the Russian. Meanwhile, Allakhverdiev rocked his opponent a couple of times with well-placed uppercuts and left hands. The end came early in the fourth. After a heated exchange at the ropes, onrushing Mabuza went down hard after a big left hook of Allakhverdiev. He got up on wobbly legs, and Khabib immediately issued a two-fist attack on the South African. Mabuza tried to retaliate but it didn't help him and after a couple of more solid shots he went down so hard that the referee Dave Parris put a halt the bout without issuing a count.

That was Khabib's third consecutive win over a quality opponent. He had previously outpointed former undisputed champion Nate Campbell and knocked out Ignacio Mendoza in February.

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In a fascinating thriller, Russian light welterweight Eduard Troyanovskiy (11-0, 8 KOs) went through hell in the ninth round to score a hardly believable tenth-round TKO over iron-chinned Brazilian Claudinei Lacierda (14-4, 10 KOs).

The Russian easily boxed Lacierda's ears off in the first half with his superior defense, wise movements and sharp two-hand attacks. Lacierda remained cool under fire but wasn't active enough to earn any points on the scorecards. The pattern changed big time as the fight progressed. Troyanovskiy, whose biggest victory had come along against experienced Polish contender Matt Zegan, started to grow more and more fatigued. This resuted in Lacierda steadily becoming more and more aggressive. Troyanovskiy threw less and started to lose points.

The epic moment of the clash was reached in the ninth. Lacierda had caught Troyanovskiy with a smashing right hand. He landed a left hand and wrestled the Russian down to force referee Alexander Kalinkin to issue a count. Troyanovskiy got up on unsteady legs and was very lucky to survive till the bell. In the tenth, Lacierda went in for kill but Troyanovskiy weathered the storm, then changed the direction of the action and finally caught the Brazilian with a couple of left hands. Lacierda became defenseless against the ropes and after a couple of heavy bombs referee Alexander Kalinkin waved the fight off with just ten seconds remaining. It was the first time Lacierda has ever been stopped.

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Comebacking Russian cruiserweight heavy hitter Grigory Drozd (35-1, 25 KOs) got possibly the easiest win of his career, when he blitzed incapable Brazilian journeyman Fabio Garrido (25-3, 21 KOs) in just 39 seconds. The towel was thrown in after Drozd started the fight with a merciless pounding of the opponent, who had a heavily padded record. Drozd, who is ranked #7 by the WBC and #11 by the WBA, scored his second stoppage of 2012.

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Other results:

Oleg Liseev (5-1, 3 KOs) TKO 3 Denis Tupilenko (2-21). Time of stoppage was 2:42.

Maxim Chemezov (6-0, 2 KOs) UD 6 Mykola Korenev (2-16)