Los Angeles Matadors Primed for Semifinal Match-up with Astana Arlans

OLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Four months of competition have come down to this as the World Series of Boxing (WSB) semifinals get underway Saturday, April 9, featuring 40 boxers from four teams intent on leading their teams to inaugural WSB team title. 

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Team pride and a $500,000 purse are on the line starting this week with the first semifinal bouts taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan and Astana, Kazakhstan. In the first semifinal, the Baku Fires, the WSB's top team overall during the regular season, will take on Paris United, winner's of the Europe conference. The second semifinal will feature top Americas conference finisher the Los Angeles Matadors making the long trek to take on the Astana Arlans, who finished second in a tough Asia conference.

In the WSB's playoff format, each semifinalist faces their opponent once at home and once away in the league's five weight classes, each time with a different squad. The winners go through to the WSB team championships in Guiyang, China on May 6-7 to compete for the half a million dollar title of WSB Champion 2010-2011.

"After many weeks of hard work by all the teams in the World Series of Boxing, we now know who the four top teams are," said AIIBA President and WSB Chairman of the Board Dr C. K. Wu. "They have already won at least $50,000 and from this weekend on they will be competing for a place in the team finals in Guiyang and a chance to pick up the top prize of half a million dollars. The semi-finals will see a full squad of 10 boxers competing, adding an extra element of suspense to the teams' tactics over their two-leg home and away matches.

"With the teams facing opponents from outside their conferences for the first time, I'm sure that we will see some thrilling bouts in Astana and Baku this weekend and I look forward to seeing the last semifinal in Los Angeles in two weeks time."

After dominating league play early, the Los Angeles Matadors struggled to a 2-3 record to close out the season, leaving their playoff berth in doubt until a decisive 4-1 win against the Mexico City Guerreros on the final week of the season. Nevertheless, the team still finished with an 8-4 record with 40 wins in the team's 60 bouts behind head coach Manny Robles. 

While each of the other three playoff teams have two representatives competing in the WSB Individual Championships, the Matadors won't have any fighters competing for that prestigious Olympic berth. Despite this fact, the Matadors are not void of class fighters who made a name for themselves throughout the year. In fact, the Matadors had as many boxers finish in the top-10 of the individual rankings (7) as did Paris and Astana. They also had as many top-five fighters (5) as did Paris to lead the league. 

"The Matadors are excited to get the first ever global playoffs started and to showcase "Matador Nation" to the rest of the world," said Matador Managing Partner Ray Doustdar. "We feel extremely confident with the boxers that will compete against Astana and the skills that our coaches have instilled in this team throughout the season. The Matadors are a force to be reckoned with." 

Hoping to go into the hostile environment of Astana's home arena and steal a victory, the Matadors, led by two-time Olympian and 2007 World Champion Rau'shee Warren (Cincinnati, Ohio), will compete with arguably their most talented squad. Bolstered by Warren's 4-0 record, the team competing in Astana on Saturday has a combined record of 20-3. 
Rau'shee Warren

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Two-time Olympian Rau'Shee Warren will lead the LA Matadors into action against the Astana Arlans on Saturday, April 9, in the WSB semifinals. The Matadors will then face Astana at the Music Box Theatre in Hollywood, April 17.

Competing alongside Warren will be Brazil's Everton Lopes (3-0), middleweight Russell Lamour (4-1), Ukrainian light heavyweight Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (4-1) and heavyweight David Imoesiri (5-1). 

Lopes dominated early-season action in the lightweight division but hasn't boxed a WSB bout since January 7. However, a strong run at the recent Pan Am Games qualifier in which he finished second, demonstrates the Brazilian boxer is still at the top of his game. Lamour and Shabranskyy have provided the steadying force in the middle of the Matador lineup all season. Imoesiri, after dropping his first bout of the year, reeled off five straight victories to end his first WSB campaign ranked No. 3 in the heavyweight class - the highest-ranked Matador in WSB. 

For Imoesiri, representing the Matadors and competing in his own backyard this season has been a dream come true.

"Representing the LA Matadors is a blessing and has been a great experience," Imoesiri said. "I feel honored to be on a team of such great men. I love these guys, we are brothers and family. Our coaches are our brothers and father figures as well. They are great role models for us; teaching us a lot about the business and personal qualities of ourselves and how to tap into our full potential. We have endured through some tough times together, and have become very close as a team. We motivate and inspire each other. When one guy is fighting we are all fighting, win or lose we all feel it together; all for one and one for all."

The Astana Arlans advanced to the WSB playoffs by virtue of the league's second-best record. Despite finishing second to Baku in the Asia conference, the Arlans, behind the leadership of head coach Beibut Yeszhanov, actually recorded the most number of wins with 44 victories in 60 bouts - three more than any other team in the WSB. 

The Arlans have dominated the lightest weight classes within their conference led by the tandem of bantamweight Kanat Abutalipov and lightweight Yerzhan Mussafirov. Together, they've combined for a 12-0 record to form the most decorated 1-2 punch of any WSB team still competing. 

Those two Arlans will go a long way in deciding the outcome of the series, but first they turn matters over to their fellow teammates as they await their fights in LA. For now, the Arlans will rely on the following impressive roster that includes an Olympian and/or a World Championships competitor in all five weight classes to try and gain early momentum in this two-fight series: bantamweight Mirzhan Rakihmzhamov, a 2004 Olympian and 2007 World Championships competitor with a 2-1 WSB record; lightweight Merey Akshalov, a 2007 World Championships competitor with a 3-2 record on the season; middleweight Kanat Slam, a 2008 Olympic bronze medalist and 2009 World Championships bronze medalist with a 3-1 WSB record; light heavyweight Ramzjon Ahmedov, a 2009 World Championships quarterfinalist with a 3-1 record from Uzbekistan; and heavyweight Ruslan Myrasatayev, a 2008 Olympian that comes into his playoff bout with a 3-1 record. 

Overall, the team facing the Matadors this weekend enters the competition with a 14-6 record. 

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The first semifinal gets underway from Baku at 8:00 pm local time, with the LA/Astana match getting started shortly thereafter with first bout getting underway at 8:30 pm local time. 

While their counterparts are in Astana gearing up for a tough semifinal in a foreign venue, the rest of the team and the Matador franchise is busily preparing for their home match with Astana on Sunday, April 17 at the Music Box Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. The Matadors are undefeated boxing at home where they enjoy a tremendous home-field advantage amongst the glitz and glamour of LA. 

The April 17 semifinal will kick-off at 7 pm and the Matadors will join forces once again with actress and activist Jenny McCarthy to help "Knockout Autism" with a portion of the proceeds from the evening benefiting Generation Rescue. Tickets for the event are now on sale by clicking on the following link: http://matadornation.eventbrite.com/

The World Series of Boxing is a global sports league created by the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) to reunite the broader boxing world and its grassroots foundation, provide a bridge between Olympic boxing and professional boxing, and grow the sport's fan base in the United States and throughout the world.