By WSB

Saturday 19 February

Baku Beaten and Top Americas Teams Tied on Points After Week 9

As Paris United and Dolce & Gabbana Milano Thunder continue to battle for the top spot in Europe, the top two teams in the Americas conference are now tied on points with three weeks to go after Mexico City Guerreros pulled off their fourth consecutive victory and Memphis Force upset the Los Angeles Matadors on Friday night.

In the Asian conference, Baku Fires, who already have one foot firmly in the play-offs, were defeated for the first time this season, by the Pohang Poseidons on Saturday. Helped by a second-round knock-out for light heavyweight Ramzjan Ahmedov the Astana Arlans also took a 4-1 away victory against the Beijing Dragons in Macau on Saturday to close to within six points of conference leaders Baku Fires.

Making his debut for the Istanbulls Herry Saliku Biembe was clearly willing to please the crowd as he entered the ring with a little dance. The Swiss middleweight did not make it easy for his opponent Michel Tavares and taunted him throughout the bout. But the only person he distracted with this was himself, as Tavares kept his concentration to win by unanimous decision.

"He started to show off during the weigh-ins and I wanted to win for that," Tavares said after the bout. "His style is irritating, but it helped me to remain calm and focused".

The most important fight of the night pitched number three ranked German Enrico Kolling of the Istanbulls against top-ranked Ludovic Groguhe of Paris United.

Groguhe started the second round with impressive combos of punches to his opponent's body. He appeared in better shape and his strength led him to win by unanimous decision.

"I usually use my strength, but tonight I used my brain in addition. I think I handled this bout very well," he said afterwards.

Dolce & Gabbana Milano Thunder once again beat the Moscow Kremlin Bears and took their fifth consecutive victory in the Palasharp ring on Friday. Four boxers made their debut for the Russian team: bantamweight Rafik Magerramov, lightweight Valery Plyaskin and middleweight Evgeny Myakinin.

The light heavyweight contest between Bosko Draskovic and Zhavlonbek Usmanov did not take place because the Kyrgyz boxer was not issued with a visa in time for the trip to Milan.

World Champion Domenico Valentino climbed to third in the individual rankings at lightweight after beating Valery Plyaskin. Valentino controlled the ring through all five rounds and took a second consecutive victory for Dolce & Gabbana Milano Thunder.

"I'm very satisfied," he said, "but in the last two rounds I was a bit tired and had to manage my last energies. Now I'll rest for some time and then I'll start training again before going to Paris. I'm not very interested in my personal score, I want the whole team to reach the playoffs".

Benjey Zimmerman of the Netherlands Antilles took on 19-year-old Sherip Daudov in the heavyweight contest. Zimmerman had a 15 centimetre and 30 kilo advantage over his opponent but Daudov was unfazed by Zimmerman's power.

The home boxer dominated the contest but picked up warnings in the third and fourth rounds, leaving the final round to decide the bout. By this stage both boxers looked tired but continued to fight very hard, with the home boxer winning out at the end of the 15 minutes.

The 5-0 win for Milan keeps them in step with leaders Paris United and in line to qualify for the play-offs as the best second-placed team overall, since the Thunder are currently three points ahead of their closest rivals in the other two conferences.

After serving as the league's battering ram for the better part of the season, the Memphis Force finally came out of their season-long slumber to pull off the upset of the year in the Americas conference on Friday.  With a dominant 4-1 performance over the Los Angeles Matadors at the DeSoto Civic Center just outside Memphis, the Force added to the Matadors late-season woes, handing them their second-straight defeat.  

The Matadors' loss and another home win by the hard-charging Mexico City Guerreros leaves the two teams deadlocked at 19 points apiece at the top of the WSB Americas conference standings.  

Perhaps overshadowed on the evening by the Memphis Force upset, the Guerreros have methodically climbed back into the hunt for the first WSB Americas league crown as they scored their fourth consecutive win Friday night with a decisive 4-1 win over the visiting Miami Gallos at Jose Cuervo Salon in Mexico City.

In Memphis, the Force didn't look anything like the team that had just one previous win all season.  After an opening bout loss that featured World Champion bantamweight Detelin Dalakliev, the Force reeled off three straight victories to take their first win against the Matadors and their first win since a November 26 defeat of the Miami Gallos.

The bantamweight matchup featured a rematch between Dalakliev and upstart Fernando Martinez (Argentina) and once again it was Martinez getting the best of the 2009 World Champion in the most tightly contested duel of the evening.  Martinez would prevail with a 49-46, 49-46, 47-48 split decision victory to move to 4-0 on the season, which moved him to second place in the overall WSB standings at bantamweight.

Led by two of their more consistent warriors, Mexico City preyed upon the road woes of the Miami Gallos one more time Friday night.  Bantamweight Braulio Avila (Mexico) and middleweight Yamaguchi Florentino (Brazil) helped provide the necessary firepower in leading the Guerreros to their second win in three tries over the Gallos.

The Gallos have struggled away from South Florida having no road wins in five attempts.  

While Asian conference leaders Baku Fires fielded a weaker side for their home match to rest key boxers, second-placed Astana Arlans clearly meant business on their trip to Macau to face the Beijing Dragons.

Olympic champion Bakhyt Sarsekbayev's win by unanimous decision in the middleweight contest was the only one of the evening to go the full distance. His team-mate Ramzjan Ahmedov followed with a knock-out against Wei Zhang in the second round of his light heavyweight bout. Beijing Olympian Ruslan Myrsatayev then closed out the win with a technical knock-out in the fourth round of the heavyweight encounter.

The Pohang Poseidons pulled off the second upset of the weekend with a 3-2 away win in Baku to become the first team this season to beat the Asian conference leaders. The Pohang team, consisting entirely of foreign boxers, was once again led by Algeria's Abdelhafid Benchabla. The lightweight beat Rizvan Alimuradov to take his fifth straight win of the season and move ahead of Ludovic Groguhe to lead the individual standings on away wins.

"Finally we notched up the victory over the Fires!" Benchabla declared after the match. "It is so pleasant to beat the leader of the conference - the team that did not lose any match before. I am hopeful that we will demonstrate even better performance in the upcoming contests."

World Series of Boxing action continues next week with the team's facing the same opponents but with a switch of home and away venues.