ShowTime
May 23
In an excellent fight that featured non-stop action, World Boxing Council (WBC) No. 4 middleweight and World Boxing Organization (WBO) No. 4 junior middleweight contender, Kuvanych Toygonbayev registered a crowd-pleasing, unanimous 10-round decision over former WBC Youth champion Andrey Tsurkan Thursday on "ShoBox: The New Generation" on SHOWTIME. In a battle of unbeaten heavyweights in the co-feature, Uzbekistan Olympian Ruslan Chagaev went to the whip early en route to winning by third-round TKO over Zakeem Graham.
Toygonbayev (21-1, 14 KOs), of Las Vegas, Nev., by way of Andizhan, Uzbekistan, came close to knocking out Tsurkan in the bout's finals 15 seconds, but had to settle for a well-deserved decision by the scores of 99-92, 97-93 and 96-94. Winning for a ninth consecutive time, "Kuva" showed excellent patience and was precise with his punches throughout the briskly contested affair. There were no knockdowns. The victory was Toygonbayev's second in a row on SHOWTIME. In his network debut on May 18, 2002, in Las Vegas, he scored one knockdown and dominated former world title challenger Oba Carr en route to recording a lopsided 10-round decision by the scores of 100-87 and 99-88 twice. The hard-hitting contender turned pro at age 21 on Sept. 3, 1997. In his 13th start, Toygonbayev suffered his lone defeat when he dropped a six-round decision to Kassim Ouma on Oct. 13, 2000, in Ledyard, Conn.
Tsurkan (19-2, 12 KOs) of the Bronx, N.Y., by way of Mogansk, Russia, forced the pace and never quit coming forward even though he absorbed an amazing amount of punishment. The courageous local favorite finished with heavy swelling under both his eyes, but he made his presence felt for 30 minutes and never allowed the winner to relax. Tsurkan, who is 1-2 in his last three outings, captured the WBC Youth 154-pound belt with a second-round TKO over Paulino Avitia on July 28, 2000, in Las Vegas. Prior to turning pro on Nov. 6, 1999, in Phoenix, Tsurkan captured the Ukrainian national title four times during a nearly 200-fight amateur career.
Chagaev (6-0-1, 5 KOs), of Uzbekistan, had his way from the outset. The aggressive, hard-punching southpaw did not register a knockdown, but he had Graham thoroughly battered and beaten by the time the referee stopped the bout at 2:26 of the third. Chagaev was making his first start since boxing to a disputed third-round technical draw against Rob Calloway Oct. 5, 2002, on SHOWTIME in Detroit. A two-time world amateur champion, Chagaev registered an eight-round unanimous decision over Christopher Issac in his SHOWTIME debut on May 11, 2002 on "ShoBox."
Graham (9-1-1, 7 KOs), of Cincinnati, never got anything going offensively, and his nose began to bleed in the second round.
| Date | Opponent | Location | Result | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003-05-22 | Andrey Tsurkan | 10 | |||||
| 2003-01-19 | Alfonso Mosquera | 7 | |||||
| 2002-10-05 | Leon Pierson | 2 | |||||
| 2002-05-18 | Oba Carr | Las Vegas, NV, USA | 10 | ||||
| 2002-04-05 | Ron Weaver | Phoenix, AZ, USA | 8 | ||||
| 2001-11-03 | Fidel Hernandez | Las Vegas, NV, USA | 8 | ||||
| 2001-09-21 | Hyok-Jin Kwon | Tashkent, Uzbekistan | 1 | ||||
| 2001-06-03 | Nick Martinez | San Jacinto, CA, USA | 7 | ||||
| 2001-02-06 | Cristian Voicu | Almaty, Kazakhstan | 6 | ||||
| 2000-10-13 | Kassim Ouma | Ledyard, CT, USA | 6 | ||||
| 2000-08-04 | Vincent White | Las Vegas, NV, USA | 6 | ||||
| 2000-02-25 | Patrick Rubes | Thiais, France | 6 | ||||
| 1999-10-26 | Carlos Montero | Guilherand-Granges, France | 1 | ||||
| 1999-09-05 | Mokhtar Alpiev | Cheliabinsk, Russia | 2 | ||||
| 1999-07-09 | Aziz Daari | Albertville, France | 2 | ||||
| 1999-05-18 | Karim Gherbi | Noisy, France | 3 | ||||
| 1999-01-25 | Samir Khada | Paris, France | 6 | ||||
| 1998-11-30 | Nourridine Maazouz | Paris, France | 2 | ||||
| 1998-05-16 | Charden Ansoula | Paris, France | 4 | ||||
| 1997-11-26 | Marnix Stamps | Chicago, IL, USA | 2 | ||||
| 1997-09-03 | Alfredo Cervantes | Rosemont, IL, USA | 1 | ||||
Record to Date
| Won | 20 | Lost | 1 | Drawn | 0 | Total | 21 |
Chagaev's professional record
| Date | Opponent | Location | Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003-05-22 | Zak Graham | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2002-10-05 | Rob Calloway | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fight is stopped due to a Calloway cut caused by an earlier headbutt. Calloway was clearly seconds away from getting stopped and received a standing eight count. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2002-05-11 | Chris Isaac | Biloxi, MS, USA | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (Judges Keith Hughes and Paul Sita both scored the fight 79-72, while judge Robert Williams saw it 80-71) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2002-04-14 | Val Smith | Las Vegas, NV, USA | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2001-09-21 | Everett (Bigfoot) Martin | Tashkent, Uzbekistan | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1997-09-03 | Brian Jones | Rosemont, IL, USA | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1997-08-21 | Donnie Penelton | Aurora, IL, USA | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Record to Date
| Won | 6 | Lost | 0 | Drawn | 1 | Total | 7 |