Edmonton Sun, Canada
Friday
Glory at hand; Erik Bazinyan putting both titles and streak on the line in KO Boxing 84
by Gerry Moddejonge, Edmonton Sun
Erik Bazinyan (left) and Adrian Flores (right) at the official weigh-in on December 13, 2018. They will fight in the main event at KO Boxing's "Path To Glory" fight card held at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton on Friday .
It's not just his titles that Erik 'Bzo' Bazinyan is putting on the line Friday at the Shaw Conference Centre.
The 23-year-old Montreal boxer also has a perfect 21-0 record coming into KO Boxing 84: Path to Glory.
And he's looking for win No. 22 in defence of his NABA and World Boxing Organization's NABO super-middleweight championships in the main event against Mexico's Adrian Luna Flores. While 21 straight wins – including 16 knockouts – since turning pro five years ago sounds impressive, it came on the heels of an amateur record that also saw him win his last 108 amateur fights.
"I started boxing at 13," said the Armenian-born Bazinyan, who earned his way onto Team Armenia and won a national championship there before moving to Canada with his family in 2011. "I have only one loss. It was my first amateur fight."
Forget charm, his first time was the harm.
But that's 129 fights ago. And now, 128 wins later, the 28th world-ranked boxer has shown he took that early lesson to heart.
"Yeah, but I still had tough fights," said Bazinyan, who doesn't put much weight on those first 108. "In amateur, it doesn't really matter. It's just the experience."
This time, he's coming up against an opponent with the same number of wins, with Flores'record sitting at 21-5-1.
"He's a tough guy, a Mexican guy with the Mexican style," Bazinyan said. "But I really don't think too much about my opponents, I care for me first.
"I'm going to do what I always do to win another fight and get more experience."
While experiencing Edmonton for the first time, no less.
"I'm excited to fight in front of new fans of boxing and hoping it's going to be a great night and I will gain a new fan base here," said Bazinyan, who also won back to back Golden Gloves championships as a Canadian amateur. "There's a lot of people that don't know me here and they're going to get to know me."
While he has boxed internationally as a member of Team Canada, including in Poland, Bazinyan has yet to return to his home country due to conscription concerns.
"No, I can't go because of the army, they can take me if I go," he said. "So until I'm 27 years old, I can't go."
His last fight came on Oct. 13, when he won both titles against fellow Montrealer Francy Ntetu in front of their hometown crowd.
"It was a great fight," said Bazinyan, who will hold a bit of a home advantage again as a Canadian on Friday against Flores. "Actually, I have my dad's friends, they live here so they are going to come.
"I will have some Armenians to cheer me on."
He plans to return to his home country as soon as he can, and would like nothing more than to be able to fight in front of them as a professional.
"Of course," he said. "A lot of people there know me.
"It's your homeland." Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. fights are on sale at eventbrite.ca starting at $65, with a live broadcast on punchinggrace.com available for $11.
UNDERCARD
While we're on the subject of amateur records, there is no overlooking the 240-11 run of former amateur world champion Sadriddin Akhmedov, a native of Kazakhstan who has gone 5-0 since making his pro debut in April. The 20-year-old Montreal resident is up against a fellow super welterweight in 29-year-old Ellud Melendez Rocha (14-10-2), of Mexico.
The undercard also features a cruiserweight bout between Montreal's Artur Ziyatdinov (7-0-0) and the more experienced Ricardo Marcelo Ramallo (22-13-1), of Argentina, who has lost four of his last five.
LOCAL TALENT
Raffaele Santoro (4-0-0) will fight in front of his hometown crowd in a middleweight match against Mexico's Mario Bedolla Orozco (2-2-1). Edmonton's Stan Surmacz Ahumada (9-1-0) is up against Mexico's Guillermo Casas in one of two heavyweight fights on the night. The other features fellow Edmontonian Nick Dragich (3-1-0), who tipped the scales Thursday at 293 lb., in a battle of the big boys against 300-lb. opponent Ken Frank (6-6-1) of Lethbridge.