The under card of the Denis Lebedev-Murat Gassiev contest this past Saturday night in Moscow saw undefeated knockout specialist Eduard Troyanovsky put his IBF and IBO light-welterweight titles on the line against Namibian Julian Indongo.
Although an undefeated fighter beforehand, Namibian Julius Indongo was a relative unknown in the world championship scene and was certainly a heavy underdog against the much more established title holder prior to last weekend.
Going in with a thirteen KO/TKO streak, many predicted an early night for the heavy handed Russian.
Well, that certainly turned out to be true.
In what must be a strong ‘KO of the Year’ contender to finish off 2016, Indongo produced an overhand left – connecting at the forty second mark – which sent his opponent crashing to the canvas like a fallen Jenga tower, leaving his countrymen in the audience stunned to silence:
The referee didn’t even think to wave off the contest and urgently ushered medical staff into the ring to tend to the now former champion, while an elated Indongo went berserk with joy in the corner.
Perhaps, considering the dire condition of his victim, these celebrations were a little premature – but after a few nervous minutes Troyanofsky thankfully regained full consciousness.
The unpredictable and brutal nature of the knockout along with it’s shockingly early arrival must make this one of the boxing highlights of the year and certainly up there for ‘Knockout of The Year’.
Congrats to the new light-welterweight champion of the world, Julian Indongo. If you didn’t know his name before you certainly do now.
With the win Indongo improved his record to 21-0-11KO and Eduard Troyanovsky moves back to 25-1-22KO following the weekend.
New IBF super-lightweight world champion Julian Indongo could find himself in big fights at 140lns in 2017 with the likes of Ricky Burns, Adrien Broner, Victor Postol and division kingpin Terence Crawford all likely now on his radar.
