Awaiting them in the last four is Astana Arlans Kazakhstan, who lost just one of their 14 Group B matches earlier in the competition.

The second leg began at flyweight, as Russia secured the one victory they needed to win the quarter-final by virtue of Karen Arutiunian’s success against Gaurav Bidhuri.

The fight was awarded to Arutiunian by a single point on all three scorecards after the doctor was forced to stop it a minute into the third round due to a bad injury to Bidhuri’s head.

Another bout that did not go all five rounds occurred at lightweight when Artur Subkhankulov caused a stoppage of Italy’s Donato Cosenza.

Subkhankulov controlled the fight from the outset, and was the more skilled boxer throughout the first three rounds, before Cosenza was pulled out early in round four because of a head injury.  

The one-sided victories for Russia continued with a dominant performance from welterweight Radzhab Butaev, who lived up to his reputation as one of WSB’s most feared fighters with a wide points success over current Italian national champion Alfonso Di Russo.

Butaev was superb from the very early stages of the contest, utilising a tight defence with frequent and accurate shots which left Di Russo frustrated, especially after he was deducted two points for various infringements.

All three judges awarded the decision to Butaev with scores of 50-41, 50-42 and 50-43 clearly demonstrating his superiority.

More Russian points success followed at light heavyweight as debutant Eduard Yakushev opened his Season V account in magnificent style against Simone Fiori.

Yakushev won every round, switching effortlessly from southpaw to orthodox throughout the contest, with his punch output and stamina far better than that of Fiori.

Italy claimed a deserved triumph in the last fight of the quarter-final, as super heavyweight Guido Vianello earned his fourth win of the season after five tough rounds with Russia’s Maxim Babanin.

Vianello used his height advantage to great effect in the opening rounds, and though Babanin worked his way back into proceedings, the judges preferred the work of the Italian who prevailed by three rounds to two.


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