Kurbanov edges Beefy; Skavynskyi tops Julio

WBO #5 Magomed Kurbanov (22-0, 13 KOs) scored a twelve round unanimous decision over former WBO junior middleweight world champion and WBO #2 Liam “Beefy” Smith (29-3-1, 16 KOs) to win the vacant WBO International 154lb title on Friday night at KRK Uralets in Yekaterinburg, Russia. It was a pick’em fight going in, and it was indeed a close fight with both fighters having their moments. Scores were 115-113, 115-113, 117-111, all for the hometown fighter.

Unbeaten welterweight Eduard Skavynskyi (14-0, 7 KOs) scored a ten round unanimous decision over faded former world title challenger Joel Julio (39-6, 33 KOs). Skavynskyi dropped Julio in round five. No scores announced.

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  • Beefy won by something like 116-112, but no way he was going to get a decision there. Had to knock the guy out, and the guy was plenty durable.

    • Beefy really needed to turn it up some. He knew he was in the guy’s backyard. He fought the first half of the fight at a very slow pace and the second half not much faster. He really needed to take it to this guy to get the decision. Unfortunate, I’m not sure why his camp took the fight in the first place…as you said, no way he was getting a decision in Russia.

  • Didn’t know Joel Julio was still fighting. He was a hot prospect like what… 15 years ago?

    • Definitely some time back. He really did fight a who’s who at 154 in his prime…James Kirkland, Carlos Quintana, Alfredo Angulo, Ishe Smith, and K9 Bundrage, beating the latter two. He looked decent given how inactive he’s been, but his speed definitely wasn’t the same, nor was his power and foot movement. But he was game.

  • As Dan Rafael would say about Joe Julio:
    “Aaaaaaah, the “Love Child”..

    In 2009 I took my brother to watch a great HBO tripleheader at the Shark Tank in San Jose. Very memorable to see James Kirkland for the 1st time get to 25-0 (22) as he was coming up. He stopped Julio who was scared to come out after the 6th round. Robert Guerrero was one of the locals fighting but he had one of those head-butt eye cut situations vs Daud Yordan. It was a big disappointment for most of the hometown crowd watching. And Victor Ortiz looked good in his fight. Got to watch a young local (S.F.)Karim Mayfield lay out his opponent also. He kept beating undefeated promoters fighters and that ticked off people like Oscar De la Hoya.

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