Juan Carlos Abreu Scores Dramatic KO Over Highly-Touted Tursynbay Kulakhmet
A trend in contemporary boxing is to move fighters on the fast track early in their professional careers. That’s especially the case for a prospect with a decorated amateur background and in their mid-late 20’s. The latest interaction of this is southpaw junior middleweight prospect Tursynbay Kulakhmet. He faces Juan Carlos Abreu at the York Hall in Bethnal Green, England.
Kulakhmet’s amateur pedigree is vast with 300 amateur bouts. The 27-year-old prospect from Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan is a four-time national champ and won gold at the Asian Games and bronze at the World Championships in 2019. He turned pro in August of 2020. In his second pro bout, he defeated Macaulay McGowan to win the WBC International junior middleweight title. His team is wasting little time as they’re moving him up swiftly.
Now the talented southpaw steps in the ring to fight the experienced Abreu. The fighter from the Dominican Republic has only been stopped once as a pro, which was in his last fight against world-ranked welterweight Jaron “Boots” Ennis. Abreu can be unorthodox in the ring and can punch. He’s looking to use his heavy hands and stop the Khulakhmet train in its tracks.
EXCITING START
After sizing each other up in round one, Kulakhmet (4-1, 3 KOs) let loose with the shots as he dropped Abreu (24-6-1, 22 KOs) with a left hand a minute into round two. As he tried to go for an early finish, the fighter from Kazakhstan was tagged and stunned by a counter right.
Kulakhmet settled down and began to fight with more composure. He kept at a distance, using his footwork to setup and land with left hands, uppercuts, and right hooks. It nullified the slow-footed Abreu, who was fighting with a cut over his right eye.
OUT OF THE BLUE
Then suddenly, Abreu sprung forth and began to find success. He opened and was able to land right-hand/left hook combinations, which briefly unsettled his opponent in round six. In the opening minute in the seventh, he dropped Kulakhmet with a right-hand flush on the chin.
Kulakhmet’s professional inexperience showed as he got up too soon. Visibly hurt, Abreu smelled blood and pounced. A series of punches culminated by another thunderous right-hand put his wounded foe down and out!
Before this fight, Kulakhmet’s handlers were talking about their charge fighting for a world title in his seventh pro fight. Those plans have come to a thundering halt. It’s now time to regroup and rethink their plans.
Some pundits wondered whether Abreu was nearing the end. He proved all the experts wrong, scoring possibly the biggest win of his career.
By: Michael Wilson Jr.
