By Tom Degun

Vasyl Lomachenko 3April 20 - Ukraine Otamans and Astana Arlans Kazakhstan will clash in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) team finals after both secured perfect 5-0 wins in their respective semi-final second legs.


Ukraine's stunning performance came first as they overturned a 4-1 deficit against Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder from the first-leg as their star-studded side, spearheaded by  double Olympic champion Vasyl Lomachenko, dominated proceedings at the Palace of Sports in Kyiv.

Ukraine went in 1-0 up on the night as after Italian bantamweight Daniele Limone failed to make the weight against Ukraine's Mykola Butsenko and Lomachenko quickly made it 2-0 as the world's top-rated Olympic pound-for-pound boxer defeated Italy's Domenico Valentino at lightweight.

The score then became 3-0 to the home side as Ukraine' middleweight Dmytro Mytrofanov defeated Michel Tavares before Oleksandr Gvozdyk  made it 4-0 with a win over Abdelhafid Benchabla at light heavyweight in a repeat of their London 2012 Olympic quarter-final result.

It was then left to Ukraine's heavyweight Rostyslav Arkhypenko to secure his side victory as he defeated Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic champion and London 2012 Olympian Tony Yoka to give his side a 10-9 aggregate win to advance to the final.

Kazakhstan cruised into the final as they built on their 3-2 semi-final first leg away win to the Mexico Guerreros with a perfect result at home at the Almaty Towers Business Centre.

Astana Arlans KazakhstanAstana Arlans Kazakhstan secured a 5-0 win at home against the Mexico Guerreros to cruise into the WSB team finals

Mexico were huge underdogs following their defeat at home and things got quickly worse as bantamweight Bagdad Alimbekov beat Aaron Alameda to give the hosts the lead.

It quickly became 2-0 as Kazakhstan lightweight Samat Bashenov defeated Vazgen Safaryants and the result was made secure as middleweight Sergiy Derevyanchenko beat Conrad Cummings.

Kazakhstan then made it a perfect night as light heavyweight Ehsan Rouzbahani beat Bojan Miskovic before team captain Ruslan Myrsatayev defeated Milutin Stankovic at heavyweight to make it 5-0 on the night and 8-3 on aggregate.

The WSB team finals will now take place at the 9,000-seater Saryarka Velodrome of Astana, Kazakhstan next month on May 10-11.

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