By: Sean Crose
Rising Kazakh middleweight Zhanibek Alimkhanuly was on the Vasyl Lomachenko – Masayoshi Nakatani card on Saturday night, aiming to improve his record to 10-0 when by facing the 26-2 Rob Brant. The opening round of the scheduled 10 round middleweight affair saw Brant move and jab effectively. Alimkhanuly, however, was able to counter well. The undefeated fighter controlled the ring in the second. He landed hard on Brant in the third, and appeared to be breaking him down. Brant didn’t seem to be able to do much to keep from being dominated in the fourth.
Brant tried to jab his way inside the fifth, but wasn’t particularly successful. Brant went down at the beginning of the sixth. He got to his feet, but still continued to take powerful shots. The fight had become a one sided beating. Brant, perhaps motivated by his corner’s threatening to stop the fight, battled more aggressively in the seventh. But was it enough? The eighth saw Alimkhanuly banging away at well. Brant’s team wisely stopped the fight before the ninth.
