Dariial Kuchmenov impresses in ring return

This past Saturday night, live from Los Angeles, California, undefeated super featherweight prospect Dariial Kuchmenov (8-0, 6 KO’s) made his return to the ring.

He had spent a frustrating year on the sidelines with politics, cancellations and pull-outs keeping him on the shelf. He was looking to impress in his return - and impress he did.

Kuchmenov, who is trained out of Freddie Roach’s famed Wild Card Boxing in Hollywood, California, by former pro’s Ernie Zavala and Pepe Reilly, was facing Tucson tough guy Daniel Lugo (5-3, 2 KO’s).  

Kuchmenov made it short and sweet dropping and stopping Lubov at :44 of Round 1.

As impressive as his 1st round KO was, it might lead to even more fighters avoiding him.

With the short time under the lights, manger Steven Feder will be looking to have him back in the ring sooner than later. However, this has been the problem. Once young fighters get a look at him, and realize what they are signing up for, they seem to get cold feet.

After the fight, Feder, while pleased with the result, would have liked to see a bit more time in the ring. Kuchmenov, who works out under conditioning coach Pedro Garcia, was having his first fight at 130, up from featherweight. And, the new weight certainly seems to be a good fit.

“We wanted to get some work in but at the same time you can’t really argue with the results”, he said. “It would be nice to get some rounds in, what we were looking for, but he caught him with those hard shots and that was it. The promoter was surprised also as he thought it would go more. Dariial has impressive power at 130”, Feder said.

With a nice win in the bank, Feder will now focus on approaching a few promoters that had previously shown interest in Kuchmenov.

“I’ll talk to a few promoters about taking a serious look at Dariial”, he said. “He is impressing every time out, he’s as nice a young man as you can hope to meet and he works so hard, everyday”, said Feder. “He deserves to make that next step in his career”.

And, if the promoters are still in wait-and-see mode, Feder plans to start calling out a few names.

“Dariial is too good a fighter to be sitting for long periods”, he said. “We may have to start making some calls and calling out a few big names; take a shot. Dariial is tough, talented and ready to face anyone”, he said.