Since it was a professional debut for both fighters, the bout was limited to four rounds, even though Emelianenko claimed he was ready to go all the way to twelve. That seemed like an overstatement, however, as Hizir Pliev began landing punches immediately after the bell.

As Emelianenko later admitted, he did not wake up until the second round, which was quite visible. But if the Ingush fighter wanted any chance of winning the match it would have had to be in the first six minutes.

”I didn’t have enough endurance. I got an offer to fight against Emelianenko 13 days ago. I couldn’t turn down the offer because Emelianenko is a well-known fighter and I wanted to see what it’s like to fight against a famous opponent,” said Pliev.

“I had only 13 days left for training and today I lacked the endurance.”

According to Emelianenko, he finally awoke in the third round to take command of the battle.

Hizir Pliev was already showing signs of fatigue at that point and lost any chance of knocking down his opponent.

“Halfway through this fight I realized that I'm not at home in my bed and I have to move around much more and box. I don't think I let a lot punches land on me and I had complete control of everything that was going on,” Emelianenko said after the fight.

In the final round Aleksandr Emelianenko must have realized that four rounds is far from enough to achieve victory, but Pliev was able to stay on his feet and managed to finish off the bout with dignity, stopping the tattooed Russian giant as he just began to warm up.

It was quite clear that each fighter won exactly half the fight and the referees were in agreement on that as well.

“I was boxing much better after the second round. In the third I saw my opponent getting back a little. He had somewhat of a chance in the first two rounds but then began his retreat. If there was more time, my opponent would have been knocked out in the fifth or sixth round,” Emelianenko claimed.

Aleksandr Emelianenko has taken his first step as a professional boxer. It's hard to say whether there was any real doubt in terms of his ability to transfer from Sambo and Judo to only using his hands. Nevertheless, the first test has been passed successfully, and Russian boxing fans are now bracing themselves in anticipation of whether he can be their next world champion.