Malawian boxers Isaac Chilemba and Anisha Bashir had a weekend to forget as both lost their fights to Russia’ Maxim Vlasov and England’ Chantelle Cameron respectively.
Vlasov avenged his first professional career loss with a sturdy, tactical win over Chilemba over a twelve hard-fought rounds in Gelendzhik on Saturday night.
The fight ended in a solid unanimous decision and it was his first win over the Malawian who emerged victorious in 2011 when the two boxers faced off each other in South Africa.
According to the international reports, the Russian, 32, was in better shape than Chilemba, 31, who hasn’t been active since losing to Dmitry Bivol for title almost a year ago.
Vlasov, who was fighting for the second time at light heavyweight limit after three plus years as a cruiserweight, looked fresh. He moved well in the opening round, using his jab and overall work rate to outpunch the Malawian. Chilemba tried to counter Vlasov on his way in and used his trademark defence against the Russia but it didn’t help much.
Isaac did better at the mid-part of the fight, using stinging blows to the body and frequent jab to keep Vlasov honest and also to slow him down a bit. The Russian was a bit better nevertheless and he landed more, although he couldn’t land cleanly. Chilemba himself started to lose energy after the eighth. Vlasov himself took a pause in the tenth but increased tempo during the next stanza. Sensing trouble, Chilemba bought some time by spitting his mouthpiece a couple of times and losing a point from referee Yuri Koptsev for doing that. Vlasov closed the show in style but Chilemba was one who threw and landed the last punch of this fight.
WBO #7 and IBF #14 light heavyweight Vlasov was awarded a unanimous decision win with scores 117-110, 116-111 and 116-111, grabbing a vacant Eurasian Boxing Parliament 175lb title in addition to the WBO Global belt.
Maxim is now 44-3, 26 KOs, and 2-0, 1 KO, in 2019. WBC #10 Chilemba drops down to less-than-stellar 25-7-2, 10 KOs, and he is just 1-5 in his last six fights since March 2015. This includes losses to future champions Olexander Gvozdyk and Eleider Alvarez in non-title fights and decision losses to Sergey Kovalev and Dmitry Bivol in championship fights. He is also 3-3 against the Russians with wins over Vlasov, Denis Grachev and Vasily Lepikhin.
In England, Bashir was outclassed by Cameron who was better throughout the bout.
The Malawian failed to contain the pressure from the Briton from the word go for World Boxing Council Silver Female Lightweight Title.
Bashir was able to show her skills in round 4 but the moment the bout reached round 5, the Malawian boxer looked tired, failed to control the pressure while giving Cameron a chance to attack with quick punches, reports the local media.
Things got worse for Anisha in round 9 and 10 as she failed to deliver and she looked very tired and weak to punch back, allowing her opponent to punch her face without difficulties.
Judge Robin Dolpierre gave Cameron 100 and 90 to Anisha, with Judge Christopher Fernandez gave Cameron 100 and 89 to Anisha while Judge Daniel Van de Wielegave Cameron 100 and 89 Anisha.
Cameron won on a unanimous decision.
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