Professional boxer from South Ossetia Aslanbek Kozaev won the European title in boxing in the weight class up to 66.6 kg according to WBC. As IA "Res" has been informed by the coach of the athlete Vitaly Slanov, "the fight took place in Moscow on April 8, 2012. The rival of Kozaev was the 25 year old athlete from Belarus Andrey Abramenko - a champion of the Eastern European version of the WBC. He held the top spot in the ranking of the European professional boxers.
He is an experienced boxer, who before the fight with Kozaev has held 21 fights and has won a victory in the 20 of them", - underlined Slanov. According to him, the fight lasted all the 12 rounds. "The fight was very stubborn. In the first round the Belarusian boxer had an advantage over Kozaev. But then Aslanbek adapted to the style of his rival`s fighting, took the initiative in his hands and the subsequent periods of fighting were on his side, even though the opponent put up a very stubborn resistance, - continued the coach. - In the 11th round Abramenko again took the lead, but the last period of fighting was again on the side of our boxer." The trainer has underlined that in only two rounds out of the 12 - the first and the eleventh, - the athlete from Belarus was stronger, and the winner in the remaining rounds was Kozaev. "After the fight, by unanimous decision of referees, the victory was awarded to the South Ossetian boxer and so now he has won the title of the European champion in boxing under the WBC version. We must pay tribute to Abramenko, who throughout the fight has shown strong resistance and uncommon will to win "- added the coach. He has also noted that on the same day in the Moscow ring another ward of Slanov, the eighteen- year-old Murat Gassiev held his regular rating fight in the weight class to 91 kg. "Gassiev debuted in the professional ring in September 2011 and since held three four-rounded fights. He won victory in all of them. It was his first six-rounded fight"- said the coach. According to him, a rival of Gassiev was the Russian fighter Alexander Filipenko. "In the first half of the struggle significant advantage was on the side of our athlete. In the first round he even managed to knock down his opponent. Since it was his first six-rounded fight, Gassiev still did not have enough training and by the end of the fight Filipenko was more active - continued Slanov. – But, however, owing to his willpower, the South Ossetian boxer managed to win a victory." It should be noted that Kozaev and Gassiev train in the Tskhinval branch of the boxing club "Ariana" under the direction of the honored coach of South Ossetia and Russia Vitaly Slanov and master of sports Alexander Tedeev. The South Ossetian fighters are representing the Russian promotional company "Ural Boxing Promotion."
