Gregory Soszynski defies all odds to collect a unanimous win over Rayco Saunders – Boxing News
In an epic battle for the vacant IBF North American light heavyweight gold, Gregory Soszynski, the current WBC Mediterranean light heavyweight champion, emerged victorious after collecting a unanimous decision win over veteran Rayco Saunders, the former
World Boxing Foundation All Americas light heavyweight champion, in a skirmish held on Saturday March 31, 2012.
The ring for the extravaganza was stretched at The Club arena situated in Burbank, Illinois, United States and the event was organised and promoted by Sam Merza of Windy City KO. The above championship bout headlined the night whereas the non-title bout
between Ramon Valenzuela Junior and Sidney Gurley co-headlined the event.
Gregory, 30, was entering in his career’s 23rd bout and boasted 20 wins in his resume. Soszynski was able to collect just 10 wins by knockout and is not considered a heavy pounder.
Gregory was on a four-bout win streak after his career’s only loss to Dawid Kostecki and successfully collected a 12-round unanimous win over Geard Ajetovic to grab the WBC Mediterranean light heavyweight gold.
Saunders was entering for the 29th time in the ring. The 37-year-old, infamous as the ‘War’, boasted 22 wins, nine of them via knockout. It is this reason why the bout, even before it started, was predicted as a toe-to-toe one since both men had odds equally
in their favour. Gregory started the things and Rayco followed a game plan that eventually cost him the whole bout.
Rayco remained on the back foot and waited for Gregory to exhaust but the Polish defied all odds and outclassed the veteran by his impressive left-right combinations. From the seventh round and onwards, Rayco realised that his strategy has backfired since
Gregory kept on throwing the jabs without any break.
But it was too late and the bout ended with all the three cards showing Gregory as the winner by a huge 99-91 score difference. After the bout the Polish admitted Rayco’s resilience and said, “I have to give a lot of credit to Rayco. In Europe, after being
hit with so many punches most of the fighters would quit, but he was dangerous the whole time, to the last round. Four hard months of work under Sam Colonna’s tutelage made all the difference tonight.”
The unfortunate Rayco, on sharing his game plan revealed, “This was my usual tactics: start slowly, see what they can offer and then pick up tempo and finish the job. Soszyński never slowed down and after 6-7 rounds, was throwing a lot of punches and I got
careless trying to surprise Soszyński in the ninth round.”
Gregory now has two belts round his waist and 21 wins in his account out of a total 23. Saunders, on the contrary, has collected his career’s 15th defeat.
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