On paper this promised to be a hard-fought and technically excellent between two of the lightweight divison's most promising prospects. Josh Jauncey is a relative GLORY veteran compared to Anatoly Moiseev, with seven fights compared to three, and has established himself as one to watch for the future. Moiseev has only had three GLORY fights thus far but has already likewise established himself.
Sure enough, the fight turned out to be everything it promised to be: a tight, technical battle fought at high pace between two fighters using angles, setups and trickery as much as power. If you want to show someone what real kickboxing looks like, this would be a good fight to show them.
The power advantage lay with Moiseev, speed with Jauncey. The young Canadian's fluidity is beautiful to watch. At times he was stringing together seven- and eight-hit combinations, almost balletic in his flow from hands to kicks and knees and back to his hands before ducking, weaving or pivoting off to avoid the counter-attack – when he could avoid it, because Moiseev is a good counter-attacker and as the fight wore on he got better at reading where Jauncey would be.
Moiseev punches hard and fast on the counter. He scored several good shots on Jauncey over the course of the fight but it was the overhand right that he landed around 40 seconds from the end of round three which nearly sealed the deal for him.
Moiseev's power remained a threat throughout the bout and he proved just why when he landed an overhand right about forty seconds from the end of the third round. Jauncey staggered backwards, badly rocked, and was possibly only saved from going down by the ropes. Under a strict interpretation of the rules the referee could have given a knockdown call for that, if he felt Jauncey had only stayed up because the ropes caught him.
Suddenly there was a very real possibility of a finish. Jauncey was on rubber legs and looked like he was in trouble. He continued to fire at Moiseev and continued moving forwards but Moiseev smelled blood – literally; Jauncey's nose was pouring – and he was throwing real bombs as he looked for the finish. Jauncey managed to avoid taking another heavy blow and rode out the clock, but Moiseev was undeniably close to scoring a knockdown in that dying half-minute.
And so to the judges' scorecards, not a fight that you want to be asked to call. The first two rounds were extremely close, Jauncey's volume weighing against the precision cracks he took from Moiseev in return. Then the third round saw Jauncey start to score well with the knee, only to take that huge overhand and have to bite down on his mouthguard and fight on pure spirit to make the bell.
An extra round or a split-decision would not have been amiss, but the judges returned a unanimous decision in favour of Moiseev. It's not a decision that can be argued with, but the score doesn't reflect the real closeness of the fight. There was beautiful kickboxing from both men and real displays of heart and grit as well. It was a fantastic encounter in which both gave a great account of themselves. Moiseev felt it; as soon as the bell rang on the end of the fight he broke into a broad grin, glove-tapped Jauncey and said “good fight!” in English.
It's a huge for Moiseev and moves him up into the top half of the rankings. Jauncey suffered a broken nose and goes back to Vancouver to plot his return. You probably wouldn't want to be his next opponent.
Anatoly Moiseev def. Josh Jauncey by Unanimous Decision, R3 (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
