Photos: Lester Silva/Nelson’s Promotions

Super welterweight Kanat Islam stops previously undefeated Canadian Brandon Cook (18-1, 11 KOs) in nine entertaining rounds at Saryarka Velodrome in Astana, the Kazakh capital.

At the start of the ninth, Kanat marched forward, landed several blows, and made the referee to halt action for good. Islam improves his record to 25-0, 20 KOs, retaining his WBO NABO and WBA Intercontinental light middleweight titles in process. Islam is expected to be named WBA mandatory challenger and to acquire a vacant #2 spot in the IBF ranks after this fight.

WBA #10 and IBF #12 welterweight Zhankosh Turarov (22-0, 15 KOs) didn’t look his best in a ten-round fight against Argentinean import Bruno Leonardo Romay (21-5, 18 KOs) but got his job done with a unanimous decision, which was wider than scores reflected: 97-93 (thrice) – for the Kazakh fighter.

Local crowd roared when Zhanibek Alimkhanuly (2-0, 1 KOs) entered the ring for his fight versus Brazilian veteran Gilberto Pereira dos Santos (14-6, 10 KOs) but was more silent when the final verdict was announced: a one-sided unanimous decision with identical scores: 60-54 x3 – for Alimkhanuly, 24.