#WSBV Day 13 – Will it be unlucky 13 for Astana Arlans Kazakhstan away to Argentina Condors?
17 April 2015
#WSBV Arlans
Argentina Condors welcome Astana Arlans Kazakhstan to San Luis in week 13 of the World Series of Boxing (WSB) with much to play for.
The South American Franchise have won just one match this season, while Kazakhstan have achieved victory in all 12 of their fixtures so far.
This is the penultimate match of the Regular Season for both Franchises, so bottom placed Argentina will be looking for a winning end to the group stages, while Astana Arlans are eager to maintain their undefeated record.
Additionally, Kazakh Heavyweight (91 kg) Vassiliy Levit is fighting to earn a Rio 2016 Olympic Games quota, and this is his last chance to do so.
Villa Mercedes, San Luis is the venue for this Group B clash, where on Saturday 18th April fans across the world can watch the action free, live and on demand from 23:00 (GMT -3) at AIBABoxingTV.com.
The last bout of the evening is an extremely important one for 6-0 Vassiliy Levit who is one of the most fearsome fighters in WSB.
Levit has won all six of his bouts this season, and boasts four TKO wins amongst that record.
After the success of Cuba’s Erislandy Savon on Thursday night in London, Levit is now second in the Heavyweight rankings, and five points behind his main rival.
Only one quota is available for Rio 2016 from this weight class, so the Kazakh needs a decisive win over Argentina’s Diego Blanche to return to the top of the rankings and be eligible for Olympic qualification.
No Argentine Heavyweight has won a match this season, so Levit will be confident of his chances against the 0-1 Blanche.
2-2 Argentine Junior Zarate opens the action against 1-0 Light flyweight (49 kg) Zhomart Yerzhan whose lone appearance this season was a points win over Poland’s Dawid Sebastian Jagodzinski a month ago.
Both of Zarate’s wins in Season V have come at home against Nico Hernandez and Magomed Ibiyev.
If Argentina are to win this match and pull off one of the greatest upsets in WSB history, they need to get off to a good start, so if Zarate can replicate his excellent home form then they could be in for a wonderful evening.
Jonathan Emanuel Sanchez then makes his first appearance of the campaign for the Condors at Bantamweight (56 kg) when he meets 2013 AIBA World Championships bronze medalist Kairat Yeraliyev, who defeated Ireland’s Michael Conlan six weeks ago.
Sixth ranked Light welterweight (64 kg) Samat Bashenov is highly unlikely to achieve an Olympic quota, but will want to continue his undefeated record in Season V when he meets Argentina’s Lucas Ivan Gimenez.
Bashenov is an experienced boxer who looks to control every aspect of his matches, and the 4-0 star defeated USA’s Tyrek Irby by split decision two weeks ago.
Gimenez lost his only match of the season by TKO against Irby in the first week of the competition, so Bashenov could hunt for the stoppage in his final appearance of the group stages.
Condors Middleweight (75 kg) Christian Zarate is on a three fight losing streak, but competes at home for the first time this season.
His opponent is 2013 AIBA World Champion Zhanibek Alimkhanuly whose sole appearance in this year’s competition was a first round stoppage success over Puerto Rico’s Jeffrey Flaz Guillén in week five.
