One hundred years ago, Jews regularly fought one another in the ring. As the century progressed, fights between two Jews became exceedingly rare. A few Israeli Jews battled each other during the first decade of the common era's new century, but Ismailov-Basin, which will take place on September 15 in Ashdod, Israel, is the first all-Jewish professional boxing match The Jewish Boxing Blog, which began in 2010, has covered.
On what should be an exciting night of boxing including a total of four Jewish pro boxers and many other Jewish amateurs, Sagiv Ismailov and Nikita Basin may just steal the show. Both men are power punchers with a come-forward style. They're both willing to let their hands go and focus more on offense than defense. It should be fun.
Ismailov (2-0, 2 KOs) is a 20 year old who last fought professionally 21 months ago. He has the faster hand-speed and the better defense. He uses his fleet feet and good upper-body movement to avoid the opponent's punches. Sagiv switches to southpaw on occasion and is a vicious body puncher. Having only fought a total of eight minutes and 42 seconds in his pro career, his punches have sometimes been a bit wide, and he occasionally was too squared up within the opposition's punching range. He sparred with kickboxing star Itay Gershon for this fight.
Basin is a 35 year old with a 4-2 record (4 KOs). Nikita has been more active, fighting twice in 2021. He fought fellow Jewish boxer Mikhael Ostroumov in an exhibition bout this summer. Basin's the naturally bigger man. In half of his fights he's been over the light heavyweight limit; Ismailov has fought under the super middleweight limit in his two fights. Basin, who sparred with retired former world title challenger Ran Nakash for this bout, has also fought the better competition. While his four victims didn't have good records, his two conquerors, Joel McIntyre and Kyle Lomotey, were quality opponents.
Against Lomotey, Basin kept a tight guard: elbows in, gloves protecting the chin. That posture will negate Ismailov's body assault, but it'll leave his temple exposed. Basin has power, but he sometimes lunges with his punches, and his hands move like tortoises.
Basin signifies a tough test for Ismailov's third fight, but the younger man should be considered the favorite in this one.
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