On September 30, a big boxing evening took place in Turkey, the main event of which was the fight between Russian Murat Gassiev and Swedish representative Otto Wallin. Both heavyweights had only lost once in their professional careers.
For Gassiev, the fight with Wallin was, in essence, a return to the big arena. In 2018, the Russian boxer suffered the first and only defeat in his career in a duel with Alexander Usik, failing to become the absolute world champion in the first heavyweight division. After that, Murat rose to the heavy weight category, but until today he faced, frankly speaking, passable opposition there. Of the four fights in this division, only one lasted until the fourth round; the Russian defeated all the rest much earlier. Against this background, the strong Swede Otto Wallin was supposed to become an extremely serious test for Gassiev, and in case of victory, also a good springboard to the top.
Wallin, for his part, came into this fight on a five-fight winning streak, four of which were decisions. That is, the Swede was accustomed to protracted fights and was ready to fight the entire distance with any opponent. Despite his fairly solid background, Otto is best known for his fight with Tyson Fury. Then Wallin put the formidable Briton in a very difficult position, but lost by decision. Nevertheless, the Gypsy King remembered that meeting, because he later received 47 stitches due to a deep cut. So it could definitely be said that the Swedish boxer will not be an easy walk for Gassiev. And an additional motivation for the fighters was to be the WBA Inter-Continental belt and the status of one of the contenders for the IBF world title.
Murat Gassiev - Otto Wallin: the Russian lost! Viking survived and convinced the judges
From the first minutes of the fight, Gassiev began working as number one, pressing his opponent and gradually trying to find his distance. For Wallin this was a normal situation, he was used to working on counterattacks. So in this fight, Otto calmly defended himself, fired jabs and did not force events at all. From the second round, Murat began to use more feints and began to hunt for his opponent’s body, sometimes delivering very good series. In turn, Wallin’s jab worked almost non-stop and fulfilled its main function - driving away Gassiev. Nevertheless, the Russian increased the pace and more and more often loaded up on heavy blows.
In general, Murat adhered to the right tactics. Knowing Wallin's style, he did not give him a real opportunity for counterattacks and tried to work in a targeted manner. Periodically, this bore fruit; Gassiev’s blows began to reach their target. Most often these were hits to the body, but the Swede gradually moved from jabs to more accentuated blows. The sixth round became the most problematic for the Russian boxer. He missed a short shot from the right and swayed. Wallin immediately tried to finish off his opponent and launched several powerful attacks, but Murat survived until the gong. After this, Gassiev again remembered that it was impossible to mindlessly attack an opponent, and returned to careful and measured work. By the later rounds the picture of the fight did not change.
The Russian put pressure and periodically carried out good attacks, while Wallin overlapped perfectly and waited for mistakes, practically without provoking attacks. It is important that the Swede continued to work very disciplined and did not allow Murat to deliver accurate and strong blows. Moreover, after the equator, Wallin looked better than the Russian, who lacked variety. By the final two rounds the boxers were almost level. Gassiev went almost all-in, took risks and began to enter into exchanges. Murat began to hit hard, the Swede was slightly embarrassed by this, but tried to respond. Nevertheless, the final of the fight remained with the Russian.
The fighters showed a tough fight, in which both tried to cover each other's strengths. As a result, the judges' opinions were divided, but Otto Wallin ultimately won. Not to say that this is a sensational result. The Swede was very disciplined and, in fact, imposed his own style of fighting. Well, Gassiev should still think about moving back down to the first heavy weight. Here, against the backdrop of really strong opposition, Murat was unable to demonstrate his best qualities.
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30 сентября в Турции прошёл большой боксёрский вечер, главным событием которого стал поединок между россияном Муратом Гассиевым и представителем Швеции Отто Валлином. Оба тяжеловеса до этого лишь по одному разу проигрывали в профессиональной карьере.
Для Гассиева бой с Валлином был, по сути, возвращением на большую арену. В 2018 году российский боксёр в поединке с Александром Усиком потерпел первое и единственное поражение в карьере, не сумев стать абсолютным чемпионом мира в первом тяжёлом весе.
