In the second quarterfinal fight in the World Boxing Super Series’ cruiserweight tournament, Cuban secondary titleholder Yunier Dorticos had an easy time swatting away the ultra powerful, but very limited Russian power puncher Dmitry Kudryashov in San Antonio. He will advance to meet the winner of October 21 fight between IBF champion Murat Gassiev and Krzysztof Wlodarczyk.
.jpg?resize=720%2C480)
The first round opened up with Yunier Dorticos (22-0, 21 KOs) working tactically from the outside and pretty easily controlling the fight. Dmitry Kudryashov (21-2, 21 KOs) did get in a few good body shots, but he never got to land his vaunted power upstairs.
Dorticos came out aggressive in the second round. Pretty quickly he landed a good right hand that forced his Russian adversary back into the ropes. Kudryashov covered and absorbed the onslaught well, but any time he is being pushed back, he is a significantly diminished fighter. A minute or so later in the round Dorticos once against caught Kudryashov with a big right hand. This would knocked him out. Dmitry was able to get to his feet at the very end of the count, but he was all sorts of unsteady and the fight was correctly stopped.
In my preview for this fight earlier in the week I discussed how Kudryashov was much more of a long shot here than was otherwise being predicted. While his very real power will always put him one shot away from winning, he isn’t nearly anywhere good enough to land it at the top level. Nor does he have the chin that would allow him to just come forward until it happened for him.
Dorticos will now get a shot at the IBF belt next time out as he is set to meet the winner between IBF titlist Murat Gassiev and Krzysztof Wlodarczyk. Those two will meet next month on the 21st.
Cruiserweight Keith Tapia and featherweight Nonito Donaire also won wide decisions on the undercard against Lateef Kayode and Ruben Garcia respectively. Tapia is an alternate here should someone pull out.
