Tsurkan (152 ¼) came out throwing heavy punches in the opening round and periodically Foreman (153 ½) elected to trade with the Ukrainian rather than box and move. As a result, Tsurkan, 5’8″, landed several hard hooks to the head when Foreman quit moving and decided to trade leather rather than let his quicker hands control the tempo and the pace of the bout.
It was the same story in the 2nd, with both men standing in the center of the ring and Tsurkan’s scoring with the heavier shots, as the two former amateur stars from the old Soviet regime once again exchanged punches. Tsurkan caught Foreman, 5’11″, along the ropes in the 4th and rocked the undefeated boxer with a volley of blows including a slashing left hook to the face that opened up a deep cut underneath Foreman’s right eyelid. With the New York fight fans on their feet and cheering the heated exchanges Tsurkan jolted Foreman several times after scoring with arcing left hooks to the head.
However, the tide and the outcome of the fight began turning in the 5th, when Foreman rediscovered his riveting left jab and began moving more while Tsurkan struggled to land punches against a far more fluid athlete.
Foreman continued to blast the hard charging Ukrainian from the 6th round on with neck snapping left jabs that made Tsurkan’s skull look like it was on a Monroe heavy duty shock absorber. Tsurkan continued to throw more punches but Foreman repeatedly zeroed in with staccato ramrod left jabs that rebounded with stunning accuracy. Foreman continued to slide, box, move and then pull the trigger in the 7th, 8th and 9th rounds with molar rattling left jabs that rocketed off of Tsurkan’s forehead, chin and between his eyes. Three, four and five-shot left jab sequences continued to score with brutal efficiency and everytime that Tsurkan attempted to counter, he was driven back on his heels from yet another Foreman left jab.
By the start of the 10th and final round there was a very large ugly black and purple bruise under Tsurkan’s right eye, while somehow the undefeated boxer’s corner was able to get the bleeding underneath Foreman’s left eyelid stopped.
Yuri Foreman danced, moved and scored in the final round to nail down the win and also claim the NABF’s 154-pound title with the weapon of choice against Andrey Tsurkan’s skull….your basic Old School left jab.
Undercard: Former heavyweight contender Monte “Two Gun’z” Barrett (32-6, 18 KO’s), who once challenged fighters like Hasim Rahman and Nikolay Valuev returned to the ring to square the books against Cliff Couser (26-14-2, 17 KO’s) and scored a thudding second round TKO in a contest scheduled for six rounds. With a little over a minute remaining in the 2nd, Barrett (213) rocked Couser, St. Louis, Missouri with a series of clubbing left hooks to the head and two stunning right crosses to the chin. Couser (235) crashed to his knees coming to the rest hanging on the ropes in a kneeling position. Couser struggled to beat the count and managed to make it to his feet just as the referee David Fields waved off the short heavyweight encounter at 2:16 of the second round. Earlier in the evening, 32-year-old junior middleweight Sergio Martinez (44-1-1, 22 KO’s) recorded a fourth round TKO over rangy southpaw Russell “Spiderman” Jordan at the 59-second mark after referee Peter Santiago halted the contest.
