South Africa’s Thabiso “The Rock” Mchunu was far too experienced for the comparative novice Evgeny Tishchenko of Russia as he boxed his way to a unanimous 12-round points decision in a WBC cruiserweight title eliminator at the RCC Boxing Academy in Ekatering, Russia on Saturday night.
The scores were 117-111 twice and 119-109.
In a battle of southpaws, there was very little in it through the first five rounds with the much shorter Mchunu (90.36kg) landing the cleaner punches in a fight that never rose to any heights.
Through rounds six and seven, the South African was in control as Tischenko (90.58kg) tried to jab from the outside with his much longer reach but had very little success.
Most of the scoring shots came from the South African on the inside and the score of 119-109 was a true reflection of the fight.
Mchunu, who is listed at No 1 by the WBC, improved his record to 23-5; 13 and will now qualify to challenge the WBC champion Ilunga Junior Makuba (28-2), who knocked him out in the 11th round in Durban on 16 May 2015.
Tischenko, a gold medallist in the heavyweight class at the 2016 Olympics, saw his record drop to 8-1; 6.
On the undercard, Lunga Stimela from Cape Town lost on a unanimous 10-round points decision to Muhammadkhuja Yaqubov of Tajikistan.
Yaqubov retained the World Boxing Council International junior lightweight title with scores of 90-99, 97-91 and 99-89.
Yaqubov improves his record to 17-0; 9 and Stimela’s record drops to 13-1; 7.
–supersport.com
