Review by AllTheBestFights.com: 2015-06-13, nice and tough exchanges between Dejan Zlaticanin and Ivan Redkach: it gets three stars.Both undefeated, the Montenegrin Dejan Zlaticanin entered this fight with a perfect boxing record of 20-0-0 (13 knockouts) and he is ranked as the No.8 lightweight in the world (currently the #1 in this division is Jorge Linares) while his opponent, Ivan Redkach, has an official record of 18-0-0 (14 KOs=78%) and he entered as the No.29 in the same weight class. Zlaticanin fought twice last year beating Ricky Burns (=Burns vs Zlaticanin) and Alex Bone while Redkach has already fought once in 2015 winning over Yakubu Amidu (=Redkach vs Amidu). Zlaticanin vs Redkach, WBC lightweight title eliminator, is on the undercard of Deontay Wilder vs Eric Molina. Watch the video and rate this fight!
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Date: 2015-06-13
Where: Bartow Arena, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Division: lightweight (135 lbs, 61.2 kg)
Redkach’s previous fight: Ivan Redkach vs Yakubu Amidu
Zlaticanin’s next fight: Dejan Zlaticanin vs Franklin Mamani
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Video: (Free embeddable video hosted on Youtube and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights, to report it please visit this link where the video is hosted)
Here is another interesting boxer from east europe, they are usually aggressive and very tough, like Zlaticanin!! I’m very happy for him and now I want to see him fighting for a world title!!
Well… when fighters reach world title eliminator level, they are usually very good, regardless of where they come from. It’s funny because I hear that often: “All these fighters from [insert any country] are so talented and powerful…”.
Olivier i agree with you, but i m not from east europe or nationalist!! it’s just that training and doing sparring also with people from east Europe I have to recognize that they are usually stronger (phisically) than others.
The first two rounds were very one-sided, but during the third some good shots landed for both fighters. Good finish with a brillant counterpunch. One thing I didn’t like though was the work by the referee. He made the right calls most of the time, but I thought he was too prompt and ambiguous with the holding warnings. If a referee thinks one is holding too much, he just need to call a clear “break” first and THEN give his instructions.
It’s true — Redkach was breaking down right away under that superb body attack from Zlaticanin (a name I swear sounds like a drug in dentistry).
Fair point about the warnings, but I liked the ref. Too often we see how a taller fighter can tie up a shorter man whose only hope is fighting on the inside (eg, Wladimir has made a career out of it).
Hahaha… dentistry drug!
About the referee, what I’m saying is that he should never put his hands on one of the fighters before calling a break. Can you imagine the fighter wrestling on the inside, battling, holding… and then, suddently one of his arms gets grabbed by the referee for a second or two… distracting the fighter, creating an momentary opportunity for the opponent. To me, it’s unacceptable. It’s pure interference, it gives an edge to one of the fighters and as I said, the solution is simple: call a break. And if the referee thinks a fighter is holding too much, he just has to take a point away – and I believe that is a very effective way to prevent further grabbing. Klitschko made a carreer out of this because most referees are scared to apply the rules, they don’t want to be a “factor” in the fight, especially when it comes to world title fights, but by letting things go this way, they actually do.
It’s like… there’s some kind of a new trend amongst the referees in boxing these days. That is, after the 10 seconds warning given by the timekeeper, more and more referees say: “Stop at the bell”. I hate it. I can see some fighters reaction, they like, turn their heads for a second because they heard the word “stop”. How necessary is that call anyway?
I see what you mean now. That is a superb point, Olivier, and I completely agree. One US ref who is an egregious example of this is Laurence Cole, a sadistic authoritarian I’ve seen shove fighters around. One thinks of a prison guard…
Yes, that “stop at the bell” stuff is fussy. I suspect some refs say this more for their own benefit, perhaps trying to reassure themselves. It is interesting to see the body language. Clearly, some refs relish close proximity to violence, hovering around it like a thirsty horse at a river, and (in the case of Cole, for example) appear eager to join in. Others look plainly uneasy. “Stop at the bell” could also mean “I can’t take it any more,” ha ha. Some variation on this can also be heard in boxing commentary where even those announcers professing to be bloodthirsty reach a point of begging the ref to stop a fight; I was just rewatching the Eubank Jr.-Chudinov bloodbath and found a great example of this.
About Klitschko: he is an astonishing talent, and another reason I like to see him called on holding is to watch him commit and engage. An early penalty can bring out the best in him. ;-)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/vegasvince/2010/11/23/referee-laurence-cole-boxing-corruption-exposed
I agree with you, Laurence Cole was a bad referee. Did you know he was caught in a conflict of interest affair since he had an insurance company which insured promoters for $$$ if their fighter lost AND he sometimes refereed the insured fight? I personally like Benji Esteves and Steve Smoger. not sure if smoger is still active though.
Thanks for the link, Matt. Didn’t know about Cole’s sleazy insurance racket. I’d only watched his egregious ref’ing a few too many times — memorably, once giving the well-traveled journeyman Emmanuel Augustus a particularly bad night. Agree re Smoger, one of the good ones in the game.
Speaking of referees. In my opinion, the sh*ttiest call by a referee ever was Richard Steele stopping Taylor vs Chavez with 2 seconds to go in the 12th round.
Ivan thought he could out power him.
Needs to get a shotgun jab and learn better footing.
Good fight.
Very enjoyable fight.
Redkach threw away height/reach advantage, paid dearly. He looked like he was starting to break down early. Zlaticanin can bang.