20 Year old South Paw Faizan Anwar continued his unbeaten run in Professional Boxing with a Unanimous decision victory over Filipino boxer Ricky Sismundo on 20th August 2021 at the Conrad Hotel Dubai. The show was promoted by Dubai based D4G promotions and sanctioned by the Dubai Boxing Commission.
Ahead of the fight, Faizan talked to IFL TV “I watched my opponent. He is from the Philippines and before I already beat two Filipino guys and this is my third one. This guy is much more experienced than me but it is okay no worries for me, this is the best time to show up my skills and I’m young and hungry,”
Kolkata born Faizan, started his boxing journey with Indian Boxing Promoter Mujtaba Kamal currently trains at the Round 10 Boxing Club in Dubai and is being promoted by Emirati Ahmed Sediqui for the past 2 years. This was the 8th fight of his Professional boxing career. He started his Pro Boxing career with 4 KO’s in his first 4 fights. He was taken the distance in his last 3 fights with Unanimous decision victories against more serious opponents.
Currently ranked No 1 in the latest WBC India Rankings in the Welter Weight division, Faizan has been making waves in the Dubai circuit over the past 2 years.
ROUND BY ROUND ANALYSIS
Round 1
Despite not having been in action since August 2019, the 34 year Filipino Ricky Sismundo looked in excellent shape. He had an obvious reach disadvantage of almost 6 inches against Anwar who was much taller than Sismundo.
Sismundo started of the first round on the offensive against the south paw from India. With 53 fights under his belt the Filippino was much more experienced than younger, taller and faster Anwar.
Sismundo had to fight a strategic bout and preferably knock out Anwar within the stipulated 8 rounds if he had any hope of winning against Anwar.
Anwar was far superior in terms of technical ability. Sismundo was continually shifting between a traditional right handed stance to switching to a left handed stance to throw of Anwar. He caught Anwar with a few good right hooks early in the first round. Round 1 probably belonged to Sismundo.
Round 2
The 2nd round belonged to Anwar, wherein he took a more counter punching strategy, every hook from Sismundo was countered with a reverse hook to the chin and body by Anwar.
Round 3
By the 3rd round Anwar was completely dictating the pace of the fight, he completely upped the work rate. He looked a different fighter. Both boxers were aggressively trying to control the center of the ring. Anwar caught Sismundo quite few times with hard left hooks and right upper cuts to Sismundo’s chin.
Round 4
The 4th round was a complete washout for Anwar. Sismundo came out all guns blazing with a flying right hook that caught Anwar square on the chin. Anwar was down in the first few seconds of the round and the referee gave the mandatory 8 knockdown count. That really set the pace for the whole round with Anwar desperately trying to control the filippino’s aggression and flying hooks. Anwar was a completely different boxer to the previous 2 rounds where he looked assured of himself and dictated the pace of the fight.
Round 5
The 5th round was a more equal affair with Sismundo having calmed down from the aggression of his previous round. Anwar was back to slowly dictating the pace of the fight. However, Sismundo was clearly outworking Anwar. However, most of his blows were landing only on the solid defence put up by Anwar.
Round 6
Anwar had to pick up the ante a few notches if he had to reverse the impact of the knockdown in the 4th round. A few clean hooks and straight jabs that cut through Sismundo’s defences. Anwar slightly nicked the round
Round 7
A similar round to the previous 2 rounds, While Sismundo was the more aggressive boxer with a much better work rate, Anwar was composed and able to land clean hooks and jabs through Anwar’s defenses.
Round 8
The final round saw both boxers tiring a lot more and with very little left in the tank. Sismundo clearly wanted to avoid close contact boxing and was simply coming into throw combinations before bouncing off. Anwar probably was able to show more control in the eyes of the judges.
FIGHT RESULTS
The decision went to the scorecards and all 3 judges scored in favour of Anwar. In the 4th round it did look as if Sismundo may cause an upset, but it wasn’t to be with Anwar holding onto his unbeaten record.
After the fight, Anwar had this to say “This is the first time I got a knockdown in the ring, it was an experience. Every fight has been an experience so far”.
The youngster clearly knows that he has a lot of work to do. Today his superior technique and height advantage may have won him the fight. But if he has to face much stronger opposition in the future his work rate has to clearly improve.
