Last Saturday night, live from Los Angeles, California, undefeated super featherweight prospect Daryal Kuchmenov (8-0, 6 KOs) returned to the ring.
He spent a frustrating year on the sidelines, putting himself on the shelf due to politics, cancellations, and withdrawals. He wanted to make a good impression with his return, and he did.
Out of Freddie Roach’s famed Wildcard Boxing in Hollywood, California, Kukhmenov, who is trained by former pros Ernie Zavala and Pepe Riley, faced off against tough Tucson fighter Daniel Lugo (5-3, 2 KOs).
Kuchmenov landed a short, sweet drop to stop Lubov in the 44th minute of round one.
His first round KO was impressive, but this may cause more fighters to avoid him.
Given his short time under lights, manager Stephen Feder will likely be looking to get him back in the ring sooner rather than later. But here was the problem. Once young fighters see him and realize what they're signing up for, they seem to cool off.
After the match, Feder said that although he was happy with the result, he would have liked to see more time in the ring. Kuchmenov, who trains under conditioning coach Pedro Garcia, made his first fight at 130 at featherweight. And the new weights certainly seem to be a good fit.
“We wanted to move forward with some efforts, but at the same time the results are not up for debate,” he said. “I wish we could have gotten some rounds in that we were looking for, but he caught me with a hard shot and that was it. Even the promoter was surprised because I thought it would be more. Darial was amazing at 130. “It has that kind of power,” Feder said.
With his impressive win in the bank, Feder will now focus on approaching several promoters who had previously expressed interest in Kuchmenov.
“We're going to be talking to a few promoters about seriously considering Darial,” he said. “He's impressive every time. He's the nicest young man you could hope to meet and he works so hard every day,” Feder said. “He deserves to take the next step in his career.”
And if promoters are still in wait-and-see mode, Feder is going to start calling out some names.
“Darial is too good a fighter to sit back for too long,” he said. “We might need to make some calls and start calling out some big names. We'll take the shot. Darial is tough, talented and ready to go up against anyone.”
