Magnificent Mexico Guerreros complete historic WSB quarter-final victory over Azerbaijan Baku Fires

Mexico Guerreros knocked out Azerbaijan Baku Fires in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) quarter-final stages with a 6-4 aggregate victory in Guba, Azerbaijan.

After defeating Azerbaijan 4-1 in the first leg, Mexico began the action on the second night knowing they only needed to win two matches to qualify for the semi-finals, and eliminate the Season IV finalists away from home.

At the end of five engrossing bouts, the Baku Fires won the leg 3-2, but due to the two Mexican victories it was the South American Franchise who won the right to meet defending WSB Champions Cuba Domadores in the semi-finals.

The night began with a win for Azerbaijan at Flyweight (52 kg) where 4-1 Murad Rabadanov widely outpointed Mexico’s Orlando Huitzil Ahuatl.

Rabadanov was sharp from the opening moments of the bout, and exhibited both a tight defence and adventurous attacks which resulted in all three judges awarding him every round of the fight.

Mexican Lightweight (60 kg) Lindolfo Delgado claimed his fifth victory of the season, and a valuable first triumph in the second leg for his team, with a points victory over 1-1 Nasraddin Mammadov.

Delgado is an incredibly resilient boxer with a terrific work ethic, but he was made to work hard in every minute of this fight by the talented Mammadov, who is a very intriguing prospect.

Although he lost the first two rounds, Delgado regrouped and controlled the rest of the action to claim a unanimous points win.

Welterweight (69 kg) Héctor Andrés Reyes Anguiano sealed Mexico’s qualification as they built up an unassailable lead following his stoppage of Baku Fires debutant Orkhan Khasmammadov.

Despite losing the quarter-final after that clash, Azerbaijan continued to compete in the spirited fashion that has defined their WSB tenure, and they evened up the scoring in the second leg at Light heavyweight (81 kg) when Mikhail Dauhaliavets narrowly subjected Ecuador’s Carlos Mina to his first defeat of the season.

This was the most evenly matched fight in Guba, but the overall experience of Dauhaliavets was just enough to outshine the talented Mina by just one point on all three scorecards.

The Baku Fires claimed the second leg win with a dominant Super heavyweight (91+ kg) performance from 3-1 Haji Murtuzaliyev against 2-4 Edgar Ramirez.

For more information, contact:

WSB PR & Communications Department

communication@aiba.org

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