Fighting at junior middleweight, Conor Benn (23-0, 14 KOs) labored to a ten-round unanimous decision against Peter Dobson (16-1, 9 KOs) on Saturday night at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. The judges scored it 119-109, 118-110, and 118-110.
The fight was much closer than the scores the judges turned in, who failed to credit Dobson for giving Benn massive problems in the second half of the fight.
“Will they step up and fight him at welterweight? I’m still baffled by Chris Eubank Jr. If you want to make the biggest fight in British boxing,” said promoter Eddie Hearn, making it clear he wants the 34-year-old domestic middleweight Chris Eubank Jr. for Benn next rather than one of the top welterweights like Jaron Ennis.
B247 will give live updates & results of tonight’s action below.
In the chief support bout, undefeated middleweight contender Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams (16-0, 11 KOs) looked devastating, knocking out substitute opponent Armel Mbumba-Yassa (10-1, 7 KOs) in the seventh round. The time of the stoppage was at the 2:52 mark.
The southpaw Williams landed a scorching left hand to the head of Mbumba-Yassa that dropped him flat on his back for the knockout in the seventh.
Williams had his way the entire contest but turned it on in the fifth and sixth, throwing flurries of shots that had Mbumba-Yassa covering up and looking in bad shape.
The fight was close to being stopped late in the sixth when Ammo trapped Mbumba-Yassa against the ropes and bombarded him with shots.
After the fight, promoter Eddie Hearn spoke of wanting to move Williams up against better competition, and he believes he’s ready for a world title shot. However, he didn’t say which champion he wanted to match Ammo against. There are a couple of champions at 160 that it would be a good idea to keep Williams away from because he’s not ready for the killers.
The big-punching heavyweight Johnny Fisher (11-0, 10 KOs) kept his perfect record intact, obliterating Dmytro Bezus (10-2, 5 KOs) by a first-round knockout. Fisher trapped Bezus against the ropes and unloaded on him with everything but the kitchen sink, prompting the referee, Robert Hoyle, to step in and halt the contest.
The time of the stoppage was at 2:51 of round one. You can argue that the fight was stopped a little prematurely because Bezus was covering up and blocking many of the wild shots the 24-year-old Fishter was throwing.