Eduard Troyanovsky vs. Julius Indongo – Results

BoxingNews24.com

By Jeff Aranow: In a shocking fight, #15 WBA fringe contender Julius Indongo (21-0, 11 KOs) pulled off a major upset in stopping previously unbeaten 36-year-old IBF World light welterweight champion Eduard Troyanovsky (25-1, 22 KOs) in the 1st round on Saturday night to capture his IBF 140lb title at the Khodynka Ice Palace, in Moscow, Russia.

The lanky 5’10” southpaw Indongo nailed Troyanovsky with a scorching left hand to the jaw in the 1st round that sent the Russian fighter down flaw on his back. Troyanovsky was badly hurt from the shot and didn’t even try to get up. Referee Mark Calo-Oy immediately stepped in and halted the fight with Troyanovsky still down on the canvas and in need of assistance. They eventually got Troyanovsky back to his feet and took him out of the ring, but he looked in bad shape.

Indongo didn’t really need to do much in the fight other than nail Troyanovsky with the left hand. In fairness to Troyanovsky, he didn’t look like he was able to track the the left hand well, because he’s been fighting largely guys that use the right-handed orthodox stance. Troyanovsky didn’t see the shot coming from Indongo despite the fact that he wound up with his left hand from a long ways away before nailing him.

It’s not all that surprising that Troyanovsky was knocked out, because in his last fight against an over-matched Keita Obara last August, he was getting hit clean by shots from this guy. Troyanovsky was able to to stop Obara in the 2nd round, but it looked bad the way that he was getting hit with shots that were ones that a good fighter shouldn’t be getting hit with. Troyanovsky was getting hit with punches that he made no attempt to block. They were bouncing off his head without him even lifting a glove to try and block them. Troyanovsky won the fight based on his superior punching power, but the signs were there that he would have problems once he fought someone with enough power and or size to get to his chin on a regular basis. What’s so surprising about tonight’s results from the Indongo fight was how easily Troyanovsky folded. I don’t want to take anything away from the 33-year-old Indongo, but the shot that he knocked Troyanovsky out with would have never connected against better fighters like Terence Crawford, Ricky Burns, Adrien Broner and Viktor Postol. Those guys would have seen Indongo’s badly telegraphed left hand coming, and they would have blocked it and countered him. It was sad to see how slow Troyanovsky was at picking up the shot from Indongo. He didn’t see it at all, which was the same problem he had in his last fight against Obara.

Hopefully for Troyanovsky’s sake, he had a rematch clause in his contract for his fight against Indongo. After all, this was as voluntary defense against a fighter picked from the very bottom of the International Boxing Federation’s rankings. It’s not as if this was Troyanovsky’s mandatory challenger. This was supposed to have been a mismatch. The fact that it wasn’t is telling about Troyanovsky’s flaws in his game. If Indongo is able to move on and defend his IBF title against someone else, I don’t think he’s going to hold onto the belt for too long. It might be wise for Indongo to look to face Crawford in a unification match or perhaps WBA champion Ricky Burns. Indongo could get a nice payday fighting one of those guys. I think it would be better for Indongo to try and unify the division rather than having him defend the IBF belt against a top contender and potentially wind up losing it in his first defense.