( Photo: Tom Casino / SHOWTIME) 01.09.07 – By Chris Williams: Fulgencio Zuniga (20-2-1, 17 KOs), made it look easy on Saturday night, overwhelming the previously unbeaten Russian Victor Oganov (26-1, 26 KOs) with a high volume of punches en route to stopping him in the ninth round at the Emerald Queen Casino, in Tacoma, Washington.
Zuniga, 30, a fighter known for his high octane offense that usually sees him averaging 100 punches thrown per round, it was a fight strategy almost certain to give Oganov a lot of problems style-wise going into the fight. As it turns out, Zuniga was light years better than the limited Oganov, who showed major defensive weaknesses and the inability to throw more than a handful of punches per round.
Oganov, 31, from Russia and now living in Sydney, Australia, it was his first appearance on American television, and was coming into the fight with an incredible 26 knockouts in 26 fights. His most recent fight was a two-round destruction of Richard “The Alien” Grant, a fighter with a 19-15 record, and this was thought to be an indication that Oganov was a legitimate talent by some fans. Though he’s listed as 5’9, Oganov looked considerably shorter than the 5’10 Zuniga, perhaps even as short as 5’6, which almost guaranteed that Oganov would have problems once he faced a talented super middleweight like Zuniga. Even as a middleweight, Oganov would be likely too short and would have problems against the taller fighters.
Zuniga, 30, on the other hand, appeared to be the much more credible talent going into the fight, and had never been knocked out despite taking on tough opponents like Kelly Pavlik and Daniel Santos. In fact, Zuniga gave Pavlik his toughest fight of his career, hitting him often up until the fight was stopped due to a cut Zuniga had suffered during the bout.
Early in the first round, Zuniga was unloading non-stop hooks which were only rarely interrupted by a rare shot by Oganov. By a stroke of luck, Oganov landed a glancing left hook that knocked Zuniga, who had just delivered a punch of his own, off balance and causing him to fall against the ropes. The referee appropriately ruled it a knockdown due to the ropes keeping Zuniga from falling to the canvas. The punch, however, was nothing to speak about, but it gave the Oganov crowd a brief cause to cheer. That moment would soon be quickly forgotten as Zuniga assumed control of the fight from there on, hitting Oganov at will without any let up and making a mess of his face.
For all practical purposes, the fight could have been stopped as early as the sixth round for Oganov was being shelled constantly with hooks, uppercuts, straight rights, you name it. It was ugly and a painful indication that Oganov had been badly matched by his people, who should have known that it was not sound judgment to place him in against a puncher like Zuniga, given Oganov’s limited background against mostly soft opposition.
In rounds four though eight, Oganov slowly followed Zuniga around the ring and getting tagged often. In some ways, it seemed as if Oganov was making it a deliberate strategy of trying to tire out Zuniga by forcing him to expel a great deal of energy in the process of getting hit by him. Indeed, during these rounds Oganov absorbed as minimum of six punches for every punch he would attempt to throw. When he would set up to deliver a punch, Oganov would badly telegraph it by using zero faints, head movement or any of the normal footwork that is customarily used by most skilled boxers. This made Zuniga’s job much easier, of course, as he would step back and avoid Oganov’s bull-like attacks.
By the ninth round, Zuniga looked to be tiring out from having thrown so many punches. For a moment, I thought that Oganov might have a glimmer of a chance of scoring a knockout. However, a short time later Zuniga blasted Oganov with a left hand that dropped Oganov to the canvas, where he landed on his back with his head bouncing off the canvas. To his credit, he made it up, but Zuniga immediately unleashed a flurry of punches and backed Oganov up against the ropes. After seeing that Oganov was in distress and unable to defend himself, the referee Jeff Macarluso stepped in and halted the bout at 1:25 of the 9th round.