Yerevan, Armenia, 27 october 2024– It took Murat Gassiev less than five rounds to knock out his rival, previously unbeaten Danish boxer Kem Ljungquist at IBA Champions’ Night in Yerevan, Armenia.
Gassiev scored his 31st victory in his record with 24 KOs to his name. Ljungquist had 18 wins, and this loss in first in his professional career.
‘I’m very happy to come back after my previous fight and win the contest, I want to thank my team. I hope to fight more often and bring joy to my fans with my bouts. As experience shows, Scandinavians are true Vikings with strong character. Ljungquist received a lot of punches, but they didn’t bother him, and he kept boxing. Before this match, we adjusted some aspects of our preparation, and we had great sparring partners. It seems that we managed to do what we practiced during the training process. We’ll keep moving forward, improving, and hopefully delivering more wins. What’s next? I want to rest for two weeks, and then go back to training. Then I’ll get back to camp and wait for new offers,’ Gassiev claimed.
In the co-main event, local hero Davit Chaloyan was able to stop his rival Taimoor Khan from Pakistan in two rounds, scoring a TKO victory in their +92kg contest.
In the 86kg bout between Armenia’s Rafayel Hovhannisyan and Georgia’s Otari Gogoberishvili, where local boxer dominated by a unanimous decision of 3-0.
Another TKO win was earned by 60kg boxer Artur Bazeyan, who celebrated his success over Moldova’s Victor Vacula in the last of six rounds.
The only loss of the Armenian team happened in the 48kg division where Baregham Harutunyan lost to Kyrgyzstan’s Anvarzhan Khodzhiev on all three scorecards.
In an opening fight, Russia’s David Dzukaev outpointed Uzbekistan’s Rakhmatullo Biymatov unanimously.
The next IBA Champions’ Night is scheduled for 4 November in Samara, Russia with the IBA Pro Welterweight World Champion title.