ESPN2 put on a poor man’s Arturo Gatti vs Mickey Ward last night when Andrey Tsurkan vs Jesse Feliciano engaged in an old school welterweight brawl in the Bronx. The Russian Tsurkan eventually wore down and punished the defensively limited Feliciano to win by 8th round KO via referee stoppage.
From the opening bell Feliciano charged straight forward in a plodding manner while Tsurkan countered. The 25-year old “El Rayo” Feliciano rocked Tsurkan early with a hard right hand but Tsurkan retaliated and dropped Feliciano with a monster counter right hand. Feliciano beat the count standing but instantly was blasted by Tsurkan who teed off on Feliciano with a two-fisted assault.
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or the duration of the fight Feliciano gamely threw bombs but was met by a bigger, more technically sound Tsurkan who hit Feliciano with everything but the kitchen sink round after round solidly. Feliciano showed great courage and chin to absorb the inhumane amount of punishment that Tsurkan dished out but around the 6th round his legs were like spaghetti as he got destroyed.
Tsurkan is no defensive whiz but he showed enough movement and defense to avoid the majority of Feliciano slow punches. Feliciano landed his share of hard punches few and far between but Tsurkan is a strong man. In the 8th round Feliciano was getting worked over while not landing anything in return when the referee took mercy at 1:17 in the 8th of a one sided war. Andrey Tsurkan was a -350 boxing betting favorite against Jesse Feliciano.
