On Saturday night in Times Square, Mongolian power puncher Tsendbaatar Erdenebat improved to 8-0 (4 KOs) with a stoppage win against Yohan Vasquez.
It was his third appearance at Sony Hall in New York City. The bout was stopped at 2:29 of the eighth round with Vasquez on the deck unable to get up from a crushing body shot.
Consistently applying pressure each round, the southpaw Erdenebat darted in and out with fast and heavy combinations. Vasquez, now 25-5 (20 KOs), was nearly stopped in the second, but survived to finish the round.
The Mongolian wisely continued to target the body breaking down Vasquez with each attack.
In the eighth and final frame, a left uppercut to the midsection bent Vasquez over and a follow-up combination dropped him to a knee. Seeing Vasquez visibly pained by the onslaught, combined with the punishment he took throughout the entire contest, referee Jamil Antoine waved the bout over immediately.
“First, I would like to thank Lou DiBella for the opportunity and Boxing Insider for having me back to headline their Holiday Fight Night card,” said Erdenebat. “I also thank the managers, coaches, my whole team, and all of Mongolia who watched and supported.
!I came into the fight knowing that I have better skills than Vasquez in all areas, and I wanted to really show that to the opponent in the earlier rounds. I was able to do that, but the opponent took a lot of punishment throughout the contest and wouldn’t go away until the last round. I was a little surprised that the fight wasn’t stopped earlier because he was taking so much punishment, especially to the body.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity for the next fight,” Erdenebat continued, “and I will show an even better performance because I’ll have a longer time to prepare and have a full camp with my new team, Joe Goossen and Jonathan Walley, in Los Angeles.”
“Tsendy has ‘it’ factor. He rumbles, takes chances, and entertains. He was in very tough, battled not making weight, gave much of his purse to his opponent, created too much drama, and STILL looked great,” said Lou DiBella, President of DiBella Entertainment. “He’s a problem at 130-135 pounds. If he develops more discipline and settles down, the ‘Mongolian Mole’ has a very high ceiling.”
Erdenebat grew up on the countryside steppes of the Mongolian grassland, living a nomadic lifestyle with his family, herding horses and livestock, which helped him to develop his lauded strength.
As an amateur, Erdenebat was a two-time Olympian, competing in the 2016 Rio Games and 2020 Tokyo Games. Accumulating an impressive 147-41 record, Erdenebat won 11 Mongolian National titles, as well as gold medals at the AIBA Asian Championships twice, the 2018 Asian Games, and a bronze medal at the 2019 AIBA World Championships.
