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SportsTranscript
00:00Boxer, belt line for this belt is gonna be ear on up, ear on up.
00:05You receive my instruction in the locker room.
00:07Protect yourself at all times, listen to my command at all times.
00:10Shirt up, gloves. Good luck, both of you.
00:14As we take a look at the tail of the tape for our main event,
00:17you see Arthur B. Arslanov a little bit taller than Tomas Khalidi.
00:22Identical in terms of reach,
00:25but a vast difference in terms of amateur background.
00:31B. Arslanov, a sparkling amateur representing Canada.
00:35Tomas Khalidi had a very brief amateur career.
00:38He describes himself as a small town dreamer.
00:42Just a couple of weeks ago, he was calling for a Hungarian national title fight
00:47against Roland Gallos, and instead he winds up in the main event here on ESPN+.
00:54Can the Wolf make this a nightmare for the small town dreamer?
00:59Yeah, we know that Khalidi clearly had a fight lined up because he was in shape, on weight.
01:05It is very difficult on short, short notice to call somebody who is both in shape
01:12and qualified to come take this assignment, and willing.
01:15So three things, in shape, qualified, willing, and here came Khalidi.
01:20B. Arslanov, he says that he'd like to be in world title contention,
01:23in a world title fight by next summer.
01:27And landing uppercuts like the one that just might have wobbled Khalidi
01:31will certainly help get him closer to that goal.
01:34Corey, I think it's safe to say that's the hardest Khalidi's been hit in his pro career,
01:37and that, I don't think it's anywhere near the hardest that B. Arslanov can hit.
01:42It's a big, huge step up in class for Khalidi.
01:47Three of Khalidi's wins have come over the same guy, Ismat Hobac.
01:53But he's never felt anything like that.
01:55That is a nasty body shot from B. Arslanov, as Khalidi is gasping for breath.
02:07And one more body shot, and this one might be a wrap.
02:13B. Arslanov on the hunt.
02:15I am honestly impressed that Khalidi got off the canvas.
02:17I don't know what besides pride got him off the canvas.
02:20That was a clean left uppercut to the body.
02:23B. Arslanov hunched over, targeting the body once more.
02:30Khalidi in all kinds of trouble as he felt that body shot as well.
02:37And another one from B. Arslanov.
02:41Just a symphony of body shots from The Wolf.
02:44Get up, get up, get up, get up.
02:46Get up, get up, get up.
02:48Get up like that, you guys.
02:50Get back, get back.
02:52Just a relentless body attack here in the opening round.
02:57There's another one.
02:59That was a concussive body shot.
03:01That sounds like a drum beat for you.
03:06Khalidi just completely overwhelmed.
03:09It's foul!
03:11As one might expect, and down he goes.
03:14Four, five, six, seven, eight.
03:24Just a couple of seconds to run out for Khalidi as he takes another deep, deep breath.
03:31And we will maybe see round two if the Khalidi corner doesn't call it.
03:37Maybe.
03:40All right.
03:42Okay.
03:44You see, this is why I ask you, I don't want you to touch the head for the first round.
03:48Now, keep digging the body.
03:50The power shot to the head will land soon, all right?
03:53Clean body shot.
03:55Counter...
03:57Not a counter left uppercut, but a mid-exchange left uppercut to the right side of Khalidi's ribcage.
04:03And you saw him hit the canvas.
04:05We're watching Khalidi in the corner right now.
04:09He is hunched over to that side as we take a look at the keys to victory,
04:14which might only be relevant for a couple more moments right now.
04:19The early offense from Khalidi obviously has not been there.
04:23But working in combinations to the body on the inside?
04:27Well, that's what B. Arslanov has been doing.
04:31And Khalidi still trying to catch his breath,
04:33still hunched over as this round begins.
04:38And B. Arslanov doing the right thing
04:40in the sense that he has a guy in front of him who,
04:43on paper and by the logic, is overmatched.
04:47There's no sense in starting slow, letting this underdog get some confidence,
04:51get some momentum, put some positive sequences together.
04:55Why not?
04:57If you feel that he is overmatched, you feel like you are outclassing him.
05:00But just like Oslesi-Glacis versus Saina Agbeko,
05:03why not just go out and maul him
05:05and just never let this guy get a chance to get in the fight and get confident?
05:09You see the 10-7 round as scored by Matt Cassavon.
05:15It took a lot of guts, a lot of courage for Khalidi to get off the canvas.
05:20That could have been a pair of fight-ending body shots.
05:24Yes.
05:30And here's B. Arslanov, a little more measured this round,
05:33controlling distance without throwing a ton of punches.
05:36But we all know as soon as he starts letting those punches go,
05:40it's very bad news for Khalidi.
05:43Heard the corner of B. Arslanov.
05:45They told him, hey, we instructed you not to throw to the head in round one.
05:49Now they're kind of letting him off the leash.
05:54And you see Khalidi even taking a breath after that jab to the body.
05:58You'd have to think it is not going to take much
06:01in the way of a body shot for B. Arslanov to wrap this one up.
06:05Yes, or for Khalidi's corner to stop this.
06:09Only because Khalidi has this career that he's building back home.
06:13And win, lose, or draw, this is a success for him.
06:18Win, lose, or draw, he'll be able to tell people he headlined an ESPN card.
06:22And he can go right back to his career at home.
06:25If he's smart and lucky without big injuries.
06:29But Arthur B. Arslanov is tattooing him right now.
06:34Khalidi with a successful club promotion back home in Hungary.
06:38They put on some of the best looking shows in Hungarian boxing by far.
06:43But Khalidi just stepping up into a completely different class here tonight.
06:47Corey, you and I have been down the YouTube rabbit holes
06:50and seen some of the worst looking Hungarians.
06:53We've been real deep in those rabbit holes over the years.
06:56Khalidi lives at the opposite end of that spectrum.
06:58Beautiful uppercut to the body again from B. Arslanov.
07:04And B. Arslanov looks like he wants to finish this one right here and right now.
07:16Khalidi, to his credit, is still trying to win.
07:18Whether or not he's succeeding is a different question.
07:21He's finding neither space nor opportunity to do anything
07:26as he gets hammered into the canvas again.
07:39And that'll do it for round two.
07:41The bell working in the favor of Khalidi, but little else.
07:45That's a slow walk back to the corner for Tomas Khalidi.
07:48Now, I don't...
07:51Take your time.
07:54Arthur, I don't want you to start having to lower your hands, all right?
07:59Stay tight defense.
08:00Now you're a little too comfortable doing like this.
08:02I want you to get back in a good position.
08:05And now, I want you to stop this guy now.
08:08Okay?
08:09So, to stop this guy, you need to use touch, touch, touch.
08:12Down the body and then come in at me.
08:14Okay? Put your punches together.
08:17Here's Bjarsonov, another uppercut underneath,
08:21behind the right elbow.
08:23A flurry there, finishes it with a left hand to the body.
08:26Down goes Khalidi once again.
08:28Again, I am frankly surprised that Khalidi has survived
08:32two rounds of this offensive onslaught.
08:35But you heard the corner.
08:37Bjarsonov has explicit instructions to stop the fight this round.
08:42We'll see if he can do it as Tomas Khalidi's brother.
08:49Taking his time, getting out of the ring.
08:51Fico spent time interning in gyms in the UK,
08:55brought some of that knowledge back home to Hungary.
08:58He's imparted it upon his brother Tomas,
09:02who certainly has risen above the other fighters on the Hungarian club circuit.
09:07But again, this is just a gargantuan step up.
09:10Yes.
09:11There's nothing in three fights versus Istvan Kovacs
09:14that can prepare you for this.
09:19Yeah, this is a speed and a complexity
09:23that Khalidi has just never seen before in live action
09:27or probably in the gym.
09:29That check hook knocked Khalidi all the way from the red corner
09:33all the way to the neutral corner.
09:36The instructions from the Bjarsonov corner,
09:38just touch up top,
09:41rip something downstairs.
09:44And honestly, Corey, this fight has been extended
09:46only because Bjarsonov is still disciplined
09:49and he's so used to still being defensively responsible
09:53that he's not just letting his hands go one.
09:55Because if he just let it go all offense,
09:57he could have ended up in a lot of trouble.
09:59But he's not letting his hands go one.
10:01He's letting his hands go two.
10:03If he just let it go all offense,
10:05he could have ended this fight last round.
10:07Huge right hook and down comes Khalidi.
10:11You don't need to count at this point.
10:19And that is it.
10:21Mercifully, this one is over.
10:26His corner asked him to go out and end the fight this round
10:29and he did it.
10:31A sizzling left hook.
10:33There was nothing Khalidi could do.
10:38A dominant performance in our main event.
10:42From the Wolf, Arthur Bjarsonov,
10:44the Canadian Olympian,
10:50who did an extraordinary amount of damage
10:52on Tomas Khalidi
10:54in about seven minutes.
10:56Listen, again,
10:58credit to Tomas Khalidi because those seven minutes
11:01were four and a half minutes
11:03more than I expected him to last
11:05with, you know,
11:07a legitimate power puncher.
11:09Again, Arthur Bjarsonov isn't known
11:11as a power puncher, but look at that.
11:13Left hook right to the forehead.
11:15Khalidi goes straight down.
11:17This is now 14 knockouts
11:19and 16 wins.
11:21At some point, we have to accept
11:23that Arthur Bjarsonov has
11:25pretty good power.
11:27Yeah, when you can make someone's body
11:29react as if someone pulled the rug
11:31out underneath them from a right hook.
11:33I mean, the level of opposition
11:35notwithstanding, that's serious power.
11:37Yeah, and that's also not
11:39Arthur Bjarsonov's problem.
11:41The fight fell through at the last minute.
11:43They got the opponent, again,
11:45credit to Khalidi because he was
11:47willing to cross the ocean
11:49and compete.
11:51And you saw, he did what he could
11:53within the limitations of his skills.
11:55He tried, he threw punches back,
11:57he was just outgunned, outclassed.
11:59And Arthur Bjarsonov did what you're
12:01supposed to do when you have somebody outclassed.
12:03You don't let them hang around. You let them know
12:05from the beginning who the
12:07contender is. And hey, that was impressive
12:09enough to make Arthur Benner BF smile.
12:11Yes!
12:13I don't believe I've ever seen that before.
12:15We're seeing it quite a bit right now.
12:19And a smile from Arthur Bjarsonov
12:21as he continues
12:23in the win column. Let's make it official.
12:25Mesdames et messieurs, chronomètre officiel.
12:27Une minute trente-huit secondes du
12:29troisième round. L'arbitre Steve
12:31Saint-Germain arrête le combat
12:33déclarant le gagnant par TKO.
12:35Ladies and gentlemen, official time.
12:37One minute thirty-eight seconds of
12:39round number three. Referee
12:41Steve Saint-Germain stops the fight
12:43declaring the winner
12:45by TKO!
12:47And still
12:49the NABF
12:51Super Lightweight
12:53Champion, Arthur
12:55The Wolf
12:57Bjarsonov!
13:03So The Wolf makes it look easy
13:05in our main event with
13:07a devastating knockout
13:09of the late replacement
13:11Tomas Khalidi who gave it everything
13:13that he had, as you mentioned Morgan.
13:15Did what he could within
13:17his limitations, but this is a
13:19massive, massive skill gap.
13:21Arthur Bjarsonov's
13:23success as an amateur and the success
13:25we've now seen him have as a pro
13:27and the progress he's made
13:29in 2024
13:31four fights in one year, like none of these
13:33are coincidences. This is a legitimately
13:35talented,
13:37extremely hard-working, dedicated
13:39fighter and when talent
13:41and dedication come together, you see
13:43what you saw. The big issue
13:45in the career of Bjarsonov thus far
13:47has just been activity
13:49as we talked about and Bjarsonov says
13:51that in addition to how busy
13:53either Tiger has been able to keep him
13:55thus far, he expects that to continue
13:57and in his words, he hopes to
13:59challenge for a world title
14:01by next summer. Yeah, this is
14:03the first time in a long time that
14:05he's been on that trajectory. You know, it's
14:07different in the amateurs because the tournaments are
14:09when they are, the world championships
14:11are when they are, nationals, Olympics, they are
14:13when they are. You don't have to worry about
14:15having these fights arranged for you, but again
14:17as a professional, the idea of
14:19having the right
14:21backing, the right management, the right promotional
14:23team behind you, makes all the
14:25difference and this is what we're seeing
14:27with Arthur Bjarsonov's career. Again,
14:29the success he had as an amateur was not a
14:31coincidence and what you're seeing, what you
14:33saw tonight and what you'll see when frankly
14:35he gets a better opponent in front of him, those
14:37aren't coincidences either.
14:39So Bjarsonov
14:41victorious here
14:43in our main event as he looks
14:45to enter a 140
14:47pound landscape that
14:49is full of interesting names
14:51Morgan, but I think when you look up
14:53and down the top 10 at
14:55140 where I'm sure Bjarsonov will
14:57have his eyes over the next
14:59year, year and a half.
15:01There are a lot of guys in that list that
15:03have taken losses or have had
15:05scares where the audience
15:07and I'm sure Bjarsonov himself
15:09says, okay, there's a little bit of
15:11vulnerability there in the class
15:13that he's chasing. There's vulnerability
15:15and there's also sort of this realization that this
15:17is an extremely
15:19competitive weight class and
15:21one loss, one close fight doesn't
15:23necessarily have to derail you.
15:25You win a couple more, you're right back in the mix
15:27and you look at his box rec neighbors
15:29they are people...