By Tom Degun

WSB KazakApril 13 - Astana Arlans Kazakhstan and Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder have edged towards a clash in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) team finals after both secured wins in the first leg of their semi-final matches.


It was perhaps Kazakhstan who was the more impressive of the two as they secured a vital 3-2 lead in the away leg of their semi-final against the Mexico Guerreros at the iconic El Zócalo.

Kazakhstan got off to their perfect fight as their bantamweight Meirbolat Toitov secured a major upset against unbeaten Elias Emigdio before Mexico's lightweight Luis Daniel Flores Norberto beat Yerzhan Mussafirov to level the scores.

Mexican middleweight Marvin Cabrera then gave the home side a 2-1 lead with a tight win over Abuyazit Ugurchiyev but Kazakhstan's Croatian Hrvoje Sep bout the score to 2-2 with a win over Isaac Muñoz at light heavyweight before Filip Hrgovic gave Kazakhstan a crucial 3-2 win with a victory over Gerardo Miguel Bisbal at heavyweight.

The Kazakhs are now three wins away from the WSB team finals when they face Mexico at home next Saturday (April 20) at the Almaty Towers Business Centre, but if Mexico win 3-2, the match will be decided by a lightweight tiebreaker.

Meanwhile, in their semi-final, defending champions Italy beat Ukraine Otamans 4-1 at home in the Casino Campione in Campione d'Italia to put themselves in a hugely strong position in the match.

Oleksandr Usyk WSB 2Olympic and World Champion Oleksandr Usyk secured Ukraine’s only win in their 4-1 semi-final first leg defeat to Italy with a second round TKO win over Matteo Modugno

Italy took a 4-0 lead with a win at light heavyweight for Imre Szello over Denys Solonenko, middleweight for William McLaughlin over Ievgenii Barabanov, lightweight for Branimir Stankovic over Denys Berinchyk and at bantamweight for Jahyn Vittorio Parrinello over Viktor Gogolyev.

It was only Ukraine's reigning Olympic and World Champion Oleksandr Usyk who managed to get on the board for the visitors as he beat Matteo Modugno by TKO in the second round to make it 4-1 on the night.

Ukraine now require a perfect 5-0 win in the second leg on Friday (April 19) at the 7,000-seater Sports Palace in Kyiv although a 4-1 win for them, which would see the bout level on aggregate, would see the match decided by a middleweight tiebreaker.

The final is due be held on May 10 or 11 at the Saryarka Velodrome in Astana, Kazakhstan.

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