Pulev Brings an End to Tony Thompson’s 2013 Resurgence
By Peter Wells
After three late stoppage victories on the trot, Kubrat Pulev tried hard to continue that streak but failed to succeed when gradually pummelling a Tony Thompson who ran out of ideas past the 3rd round.
Thompson was in his own aura of confidence after twice dismantling David Price – the 2nd time was particularly impressive. For three rounds that good feeling was flowing through his light feet. Pulev was inactive and seemed to be perplexed by the 41 year old’s activity.
In the 4th round after a stern lecture from his trainer, the Bulgarian began to prod the right hand into the face and body of Thompson. The pace rose round-by-round and by the 6th stanza, Thompson knew that it just was not to be his night.
Pulev controlled the fight, and looked close to forcing a stoppage in rounds 8, 9 and 10, but Thompson used his wily tricks to keep himself in the contest.
Thompson sporadically tagged the incoming Pulev with a southpaw left or a solid right jab, but the majority of the work came from Pulev. He continued to chop at the tree in front of him but his axe wasn’t quite sharp enough to inflict the same fate on Thompson as he did to previous challengers, Michael Sprott, Alexander Dimitrenko and Alexander Ustinov.
The final scorecards read 116-112, 117-111 and 118-110, I was in agreement with the closest tally. With the comfortable victory Pulev moves to 18-0(9) while the always resilient Thompson drops to 38-4(26).
Pulev will now be in pursuit of a match-up with Heavyweight kingpin, Wladimir Klitschko. As mandatory challenger he won’t have to wait long, but on Saturday nights display it is unlikely Wladimir will be losing any sleep over his latest rival attempting to capture his silverware.
As for Tony Thompson, it is unlikely he’ll retire just yet, but his hope of gaining a third shot at Wlad has all but vanished. Still expect plenty of prospects to be calling him out in the near future.
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