Kazakhstan to face Azerbaijan in World Series of Boxing semi-finals

Defending World Series of Boxing (WSB) champions the Astana Arlans Kazakhstan will face the Azerbaijan Baku Fires in the semi-finals after both teams won their respective quarterfinals against Team Germany and Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder.

Italia Thunder's season came to an unexpected end when super heavyweight Mihai Nistor, who after dominating for five rounds, aggressively re-engaged with opponent Arslanbek Makhmudov and got knocked out just 25 seconds away from certain victory.

"Nistor was coasting to victory," the WSB commentator said.

"Coasting is the only word for it.

"And then suddenly, the real Makhmudov appeared.

"It may go down in WSB history; a boxer that was so far ahead on points, that all he had to do was stay out of trouble for a few seconds, instead went forward and got knocked out at such a critical time."

Elsewhere, Italia Thunder's Andrew Selby of Wales was in outstanding form against Elvin Mamishzada to win the flyweight fight, while lightweight Domenico Valentino had a hard fight with Albert Selimov in what was the most competitive bout of the evening.

Welterweights Vincenzo Mangiacapre and Mahamed Nurudzinau were both excellent in an extremely close match but the Italian hung tough and earned his sixth WSB victory as 2011 world silver medallist Teymur Mammadov of Azerbaijan fell to Algerian Italia Thunder boxer Abdelhafid Benchabla in the last bout of the evening.

ANN.Az