Usyk vs Muller in Kyiv, 29.08.2015: Ringside Impressions
Over the weekend I was visiting Kyiv, and we went to see the Usyk vs Muller fight.
Saturday, August 29, 2015, evening, great weather, a good mood, the Palace of Sports and tickets to Oleksandr Usyk’s fight.
The fight night poster, 29.08.2015
There was still some time before the doors opened.
So, seeing familiar places, I decided to walk around the fountain looking for Pasha Bumchyk and his crew :-) I circled the fountain and looked over at the Gulliver shopping center, but Bumchyk wasn’t there.
Then it was time, and we were literally among the first to rush into the Palace of Sports.
The atmosphere
I’ll skip the details: if I start writing everything that’s spinning in my head, it’ll turn into a short novel :-)
I’ll say one thing: watching boxing on TV and being in the arena are completely different things. We had VIP seats close to the ring, and we could see the boxers very well.
At first I was surprised that no more than half the seats were taken, but closer to Usyk’s fight people kept coming. When Usyk was announced, the crowd went wild: the hall seemed 110% full, people were standing even in the aisles, everyone was clapping, shouting and cheering. His song played, and the future winner walked to the ring :-) The ovation didn’t stop – everyone wanted to greet the boxer.
Usyk in the ring
The main event: Usyk vs Muller
Usyk was the star of the night! He was defending his WBO Inter-Continental cruiserweight title against South Africa’s Johnny “The Hurricane” Muller. Before the fight, the South African anthem was played, followed by the Ukrainian anthem – it was great, loud and impressive.
Muller went down twice, and at the end of the third round the referee stopped the fight: Usyk won by technical knockout.
Usyk’s victory
The rest of the card
Every fight was memorable in its own way. I even felt sorry for some boxers: they fought with dignity but lost on points.
- Oleksandr Spirko really stood out: he knocked out Latvia’s Eduards Gerasimovs in the very first round with a shot to the liver, and after the win was announced he did a spectacular flip right in the ring. The fight was so quick that a 10-minute break was called – everyone wandered off for cola and popcorn :-)
- Denys Berinchyk had his first professional fight. He started a bit slow, but within a few minutes he was flying around the ring like a phantom, slipping in with body shots on Tarik Madni. The Belgian, with a broken nose, didn’t come out for the fifth round – an early win for Berinchyk.
- Khusein Baysangurov and Petro Ivanov beat their Georgian opponents on points. The Georgian coach stood out, carefully fanning his boxers with a towel and giving them water, but it didn’t help. The crowd chanted “Khusein is the champion!” and “Come on, Petya!” :-)
- Oleg Malinovskyi beat Uzbekistan’s Bahyt Abdurahimov on points, though the latter put up a very tough fight. That night the boxers in the red corner kept winning :-)
After Usyk’s win the crowd applauded for a long time. People began to leave, and some went up to the ring to take photos next to it.
Joy in the arena
We stayed a bit longer – and not for nothing: it turned out one more fight was scheduled. Maksym Ponomarov (Ukraine) and Levan Shonia (Georgia) fought in earnest. Maksym won on points thanks to his accurate punches, though under Levan’s pressure he took quite a few himself.
The night ended just after midnight, and we drove home full of impressions.
P.S. One more event of the evening: we met an interesting girl named Sveta. Hi, Sveta :-)