MTK Fight Night results: Nordine Oubaali retains title, Zhankosh Turarov wins in main event

Nordine Oubaali had a pretty easy first defense of his WBC bantamweight title today in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, stopping Arthur Villanueva after the sixth round of a completely one-sided fight.

Oubaali (16-0, 12 KO) won the belt against Rau’shee Warren in January on the Pacquiao-Broner undercard, and had his way in this one, dominating every round and dropping Villanueva (32-4-1, 18 KO) in the sixth round. Villanueva survived that round, but gave it up in the corner. BLH had the fight 60-53 at the time of the corner retirement.

The 32-year-old Oubaali is a real player at 118, which is a good division currently being led by, on paper at least, Naoya Inoue and Luis Nery, two powerhouses. There’s already been talk of a potential Nery-Oubaali fight, so maybe that could be revisited soon. Nery fights again on July 20, so their timelines should be good.

Zhankosh Turarov TKO-3 Mauro Godoy

Godoy (31-5-1, 16 KO) came in from Argentina and got smashed out pretty quick by home headliner Turarov (24-0, 17 KO), who dropped and finished Godoy at 2:00 of the third round. Turarov is 28 so will want to make his move sooner than later, but he also has just returned from a long layoff. He hadn’t boxed since Sept. 2017 when he fought on June 1 in Cardiff, and now that he’s with MTK he’s obviously looking to stay busy and get into the action at 140, where he could be interesting if things keep moving for him.

Viktor Kotochigov UD-10 Jairo Lopez

Kotochigov (10-0, 4 KO) is a 26-year-old Kazakh lightweight, looked OK here, won on scores of 98-93, 99-93, and 99-91. Doesn’t look like he has real world level upside or anything. Lopez (24-11, 16 KO) is a decent journeyman type, but a real high level fighter probably gets him out. That’s not to dampen ALL enthusiasm for Kotochigov, just to put a ceiling on him.

Davey Oliver Joyce UD-10 Breilor Teran

Fight was never competitive, really, with Joyce (11-0, 8 KO) winning on scores of 100-86, 100-87, and 100-89. Joyce is a 32-year-old Irishman, was a good but not amazing amateur, too old by several years to be considered a prospect, really, but he’s got good connections and despite the fact he’s beaten nobody significant, already has a No. 11 ranking with the WBO at 126. One figures that MTK are guiding him toward that title shot with an undefeated record and at that point they’ll just roll the dice on whether or not he can deliver. Teran falls to 27-18-1 (20 KO).