By Alexey Sukachev

Ukraine - Reigning European and WBA Continental featherweight titlist Oleg Yefimovich (28-2, 15 KOs) looked dominant in his third-round kayo of Romanian veteran Eugene Sorin Tanasie (19-2-1, 9 KOs). Yefimovich defended only the WBA part of his regalia and did that for the second time.

The Ukrainian in fact is of the same age as his opponent - 35 years. However, he is a young-bloodied veteran, who is fresh and juicy in the ring. On the other hand, Tanasie, a former Romanian super flyweight and bantamweight champion, was fighting for thr third time since coming back after three years off the ring and two weight classes higher his natural weight.

It was a mismatch in real life as it had been deemed to be on paper. Tanasie was rusty and slower than Yefimovich. The latter took some time to calculate his opponent, then started to deliver heat with his right hand. After a tedious opener, Yefimovich landed more in the seond round, finally dropping Tanasie with a right hand to the ear at the very end of the round. Tanasie was soon down in the third but it hasn't been ruled a knockdown by referee Guiseppe Quartarone. Yefimovich, who is rated #7 by the WBA, continued his pressure until a moment Tanasie was shaky. The Romanian tried to land a big bomb but ran right into Yefimovich's right hand. He went down hard, got up and the count of nine but stumbled back as the referee was waving it off. Time was 2:20 of the round.

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WBA #4 rated flyweight puncher Artem Dalakian (13-0, 9 KOs) made a very solid step up in class with a hard-fought but well-earned eighth-round TKO over very capable Romanian veteran Silvio Olteanu in the best performance of his career. Time was approximately 1:39 of the round, and this victory allowed Dalakian to retain his WBA Continental 112lb title for the second time. Olteanu was stopped just for the second time in his career.

Olteanu, 38, started his career with three straight losses to win his next eleven fights. This streak allowed Olteanu to challenge WBA flyweight champion Daiki Kameda at the end of 2010. Producing the best fight of his life the Spain-based Romanian was limited to a split decision loss, which was thought by many to be a late favorite for the Robbery of the Year clause. Anyway, Olteanu lost his next two as well, then won the EBU title to defend it twice before starting his career of a gatekeeper. Oppositely Dalakian, ten years his junior, was touted as a prodigy since his pro debut after a solid amateur career but fought sporadically lately due to political chaos in his native land.

Dalakian started very effectively, boxing easily with his hand down, jogging around his aggressive opponent. Olteany was charging forward with looping right and left hands, which were mostly avoided by the Ukrainian. Dalakian was effective in the first couple of rounds with his jab and added solid bombs from his left when needed. Shorter Olteanu was unable to find his distance.

The Romanian storied veteran improved his performance in the third round to give Dalakian some trouble with his winging shots. However, the Ukrainian offered some heavy right hands of his own to rock Olteanu at the ropes. Olteanu came back very big in the fourth, when he dropped Dalakian for the first knockdown in his career. Dalakian was up quickly but Olteanu gave him a bit trouble at the end of the round as well. On the negative side he suffered two cuts over his right eye.

Sensing his advantage could be not enough to get an upper hand against the veteran boxer Dalakian accelerated in round five to produce even more fire in the ring. Both boxers fought according to their respective styles in rounds five and six, but Olteanu's age started to show up as his reflexes weren't as sharp as those of Dalakian. Jabs and right hands by the Ukrainian forced another cut under his left eye, which got even larger in round seven. In round eight, Dalakian landed more punches but Olteanu was responding well. However, his face looked more and more similar to a bloody mask with each punch. Finally, a fight was halted, and a ringside physician indicated it couldn't go on after a short examination of the Romanian, who falls to 16-10-1, 7 KOs.

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Former European title challenger and recent UBO world titleholder (whatever it means) Olexander Yegorov (16-1-1, 8 KOs) got the better of very experienced and durable Belarussian Andrey Isaev (29-7, 9 KOs) over twelve rounds to capture a vacant WBA Continental super bantamweight title.

Yegorov wasn't better from stylistic point of view but he was more active and did his absolute best to outwork the veteran boxer. Isaev, who has lost his last bout to Ruslan Berchuk, found some room for ocassional left uppercuts to trouble Yegorov at some points. All in all, it was an even fight but the local boxer enjoyed some home turf advantage and added a powerful surge in later rounds to earn a close unanimous decision: 117-111, 116-112, and 116-112. Yegorov fought through a cut over his right eye during the second half of the fight.

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In a thriller, 20-year old all-action welterweight Vladyslav Baranov (4-1-1, 3 KOs) managed to get a draw with more experienced Dmytro Fedas (7-0-2, 4 KOs) over six rounds. Fedas, 26, was slightly better technically but the exotic puncher scored two knockdowns in round two to even things up. Final scores were: 57-56, 56-56, and 56-57.

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Former world-rated flyweight Olexander Gryshchuk (14-0, 6 KOs) fought for the first time since August 2013 (due to a military conflict in his native Donetsk Region) and came back with a solid third-round kayo of debuting Yaroslav Yavorskiy (0-1). Time was 2:18.

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Other results:

Igor Kudritskiy (4-0, 3 KOs) KO 1 Victor Hnatiuk (0-1)

Igor Mahurin (3-0-1) UD 6 Dmitry Kostenko (0-2-1)

Bogdan Onischenko (2-0, 1 KO) TKO 3 Roman Mazhula (0-1)