“The Wolf” huffed and puffed and blew Mohamed Mimoune’s house down.
Arthur Biyarslanov kept his unbeaten streak intact on Thursday, stopping Mimoune in the second round of their 10-round scheduled junior welterweight fight at Casino Montreal in Montreal. The fight was stopped at the 2:16 mark as Biyarslanov, a 29-year-old Toronto resident by way of Russia, pummeled his French opponent around the ring with little resistance coming back.
The fight headlined a card promoted by Eye of the Tiger Management, which aired live in the United States on ESPN+.
Biyarslanov, 18-0 (15 KOs), found out in the opening moments that he could hurt Mimoune, 24-7 (5 KOs), as a right hook to the body already seemed to bother Mimoune early on. Boxing out of a high-guard defense, Mimoune could offer back only slapping punches, which seemed to only embolden Biyarslanov.
Just seconds into the second round, Biyarslanov jumped on Mimoune, wobbling him with a right hook and forcing his gloves to the canvas after a series of heavy blows for a knockdown.
Biyarslanov did an effective job of finding the space behind Mimoune’s guard to land his follow-up blows, which landed more times than not. Mimoune’s peekaboo guard allowed Biyarslanov to tee off with impunity, throwing and landing dozens of punches that sent Mimoune wobbling around the ring until the referee stopped the fight at 2:16 of the second round.
Biyarslanov has been a long-time resident of Canada, winning multiple national championships in the country dating back to his days in the junior ranks.
Earlier on the card, Albert Ramirez maintained his momentum towards a light heavyweight title opportunity after he stopped Marko Calic in the third round. The 32-year-old Ramirez, 20-0 (17 KOs), dropped Calic twice in Round 3, bringing the fight to a stoppage at the 2:10 mark.
Ramirez, a 2016 Venezuelan Olympian, put Calic down twice on right hooks, forcing the corner and doctor to call for the fight to be stopped.
Calic, now 15-2 (9 KOs), lost for the first time since his 2020 stoppage defeat against Joshua Buatsi.
The Croatia-based Calic got off to a strong start in Round 1, walking the aggressive Ramirez into a straight right hand that might have earned him the round. Ramirez bounced back in the second round, landing a number of southpaw lefts through Calic’s guard that made an impression.
Ramirez found the missing component to the knockout in Round 3 when he started using his right hook to cut off Calic’s movement. The first knockdown came off a flurry of punches that sent Calic to the canvas. Ramirez looked to land another right hook shortly after Calic beat the count, but he was warned for a rabbit punch. Moments later, Ramirez dropped Calic with another right hook that landed just as far to the rear of the head as the previous punch, though Calic never protested.
Ramirez is rated in the top five by all four major sanctioning bodies at 175lbs, with his highest ranking being No. 2, both with the WBC and WBA.
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
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