Murat Gassiev vs. Peter Kadiru Official Fight Highlights" width="578" height="325" />
MURAT GASSIEV STOPS PETER KADIRU IN ROUND 6, RETAINS WBA HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE IN FIRST DEFENSE
By Real Combat Media Boxing Editorial Staff
Moscow, Russia (July 11th, 2026)– Murat Gassiev made the first defense of his full WBA heavyweight championship count, breaking down late replacement Peter Kadiru over five rounds before the German’s corner threw in the towel early in round six at VTB Arena. It was a workmanlike, patient demolition from the Russian former unified cruiserweight champion, who now sits at (34-2, 27 KOs) and is firmly in the mix of a heavyweight division still sorting itself out after Oleksandr Usyk’s title vacancy.
Kadiru (23-2, 13 KOs) took the fight on roughly five days’ notice after Tony Yoka withdrew with a back injury, and it showed. He never found the range to make Gassiev pay for the step up in class. In the night’s co-feature, fellow Russian Artem Suslenkov added his name to the heavyweight conversation with an 11th-round stoppage of Joe Joyce, who waved off the fight himself rather than absorb more punishment.
Results
WBA Heavyweight World Title: Murat Gassiev def. Peter Kadiru by TKO (corner retirement), Round 6
Heavyweight: Artem Suslenkov def. Joe Joyce by TKO (corner retirement), Round 11
Heavyweight: Arslan Yallyev def. Murad Khalidov by TKO, Round 3
Heavyweight: Muslim Gadzhimagomedov def. Kevin Martinez by TKO (corner stoppage), Round 8
Light Heavyweight: Sharabutdin Ataev def. Jose Uzcategui by unanimous decision (119-109, 119-109, 118-110)
Cruiserweight: David Dzukaev def. Aleksei Egorov by split decision
Super Welterweight: Pavel Sosulin def. Eddy Colmenares by unanimous decision
Bantamweight: Vyacheslav Rogozin def. RV Deniega by unanimous decision
How It Happened
I’ve trained fighters for thirty years and I stood in the ring myself for a good chunk of years before that, and I’ll tell you straight — this wasn’t a barnburner, it was a clinic. Gassiev spent round one just touching Kadiru’s guard, feeling out range with hooks off both hands, the way a smart veteran does against an opponent he hasn’t shared a ring with. By round two he was comfortable enough to start loading up on the inside, and round three is where the fight actually turned: sustained work to the body and head that had Kadiru backing up and breathing through his mouth. That’s the round I’d point to on film. Body work doesn’t show up on a highlight reel, but it’s the tax that gets collected late, and Gassiev was already cashing the check by round four.
Kadiru had his moment in round five — his best of the fight, for what it’s worth — letting his hands go and mixing in some looks from southpaw. But it was too little, and Gassiev answered by backing him onto the ropes again before the horn. Round six didn’t take long. Gassiev pulled Kadiru’s lead hand down, worked three hard right hooks through the opening, followed with a body shot and a right uppercut, and then let a full combination go that put Kadiru’s corner up on the ring apron waving the white towel before he had to eat any more of it.
Here’s my only real editorial note on the finish: I was glad to see that towel come in when it did. Kadiru wasn’t defending himself intelligently in that exchange, and I’ve spent enough of the last ten years going through film and research on what repeated, undefended head trauma does to a fighter’s brain long after the record book stops mattering. A corner that pulls a guy out one exchange early instead of one exchange late is doing its job. That’s not a knock on Kadiru’s toughness — he took a very difficult short-notice assignment against a bigger, more experienced puncher, and he was still standing when it ended. That’s more than plenty of levelheaded operators would’ve done in his shoes.
Down in the co-feature, Suslenkov-Joyce told a similar story from a different angle. Joyce, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist with plenty of professional wear on him, took control back into the fight in the middle rounds before Suslenkov’s engine and volume separated them again in round eleven. What stood out to me was Joyce’s own decision to step back and wave off the fight rather than wait for the referee. In a sport still working through what we now understand about cumulative trauma, a veteran fighter making that read on himself, in real time, in the middle of a firefight, is exactly the kind of self-awareness this sport needs more of from fighters, from corners, and from commissions.
What’s Next
Gassiev wasted no time pointing toward his next test, going face-to-face with Derek Chisora immediately after the fight. Chisora, who was ringside and audibly encouraging Kadiru’s corner to pull the plug during the later rounds, has flirted with a comeback since his own loss to Deontay Wilder earlier this year. Whether that fight actually gets made or Gassiev pivots toward one of the other beltholders in a fractured heavyweight picture, the Russian has now won back-to-back heavyweight title fights and looks the part of a full champion, not just an accidental one who inherited a vacated strap.
Watch Post-Fight Coverage:
Murat Gassiev vs. Peter Kadiru | Official Fight Highlights
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