Italia Thunder's season came to an unexpected end when super heavyweight Mihai Nistor, who after dominating for five rounds, aggressively re-engaged with opponent Arslanbek Makhmudov and got knocked out just 25 seconds away from certain victory.

"Nistor was coasting to victory," the WSB commentator said.

"Coasting is the only word for it.

"And then suddenly, the real Makhmudov appeared.

"It may go down in WSB history; a boxer that was so far ahead on points, that all he had to do was stay out of trouble for a few seconds, instead went forward and got knocked out at such a critical time."

Elsewhere, Italia Thunder's Andrew Selby of Wales was in outstanding form against Elvin Mamishzada to win the flyweight fight, while lightweight Domenico Valentino had a hard fight with Albert Selimov in what was the most competitive bout of the evening.

Welterweights Vincenzo Mangiacapre and Mahamed Nurudzinau were both excellent in an extremely close match but the Italian hung tough and earned his sixth WSB victory as 2011 world silver medallist Teymur Mammadov of Azerbaijan fell to Algerian Italia Thunder boxer Abdelhafid Benchabla in the last bout of the evening.

Kazakhstan whitewashed Germany to earn the chance to defend their WSB title ©AIBA/WSB


Meanwhile, Kazakhstan cruised 5-0 to their quarterfinal victory over Germany and in doing so earned the chance to defend their WSB title.

Miras Zhakupov of the Arlans put Ronny Beblik under serious pressure to take the flyweight bout, while Samat Bashenov and Germany's Artur Bril put on an excellent display for the crowd in the Almaty Sports Palace, who ultimately saw the home team taking the win.

German super-heavyweight Erik Pfeifer, making his return to the very arena where he won his World Championship bronze medal last October, fell to Kazakhstan's Ruslan Myrsatayev as Germany's Vjaceslav Kerber and the Arlans' Meirim Nursultanov were very closely matched at welterweight.

Germany's Serge Michel came into the competition with a good run this season winning both his bouts prior to this match, including one by a technical knock out, but he could not defeat Arlans' Croatian superstar Hrvoje Sep and his energy-sapping approach.

"Serge Michel is built like a boxer, but has the mentality of a fighter and against this man [Hrvoje Sep] that can get you in trouble," the commentator said.

"You can't fight Sep, you have got to box him."

The semi-finals are due to take place later this month.

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