Warrington v Dieli the Undercard

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The Matchroom promoted Battle Lines, presented a stacked undercard, which contained Ricky Burns, Callum Smith and Brian Rose no less, not to mention an all British Commonwealth title fight at Light Welterweight.

Ricky Burns v Alexandre Lepelley

Ricky Burns began his campaign at Light Welterweight in good style, knocking down the Frenchman with a hard right hand, followed by a left hook to seal the deal. Unfortunately, that is as good as it got for the 2-time former World Champion.

Although Burns was winning the rounds, the distance between the fighters reduced as the fight went on, descending into a war of attrition, which was not the order of the day. The Scotsman continued to win the rounds, but he didn’t look great in doing so.

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N’Dam beats Stevens in title eliminator

After a great response from their inaugural card in April, King Sports presented another “Boxing at the Barker” card tonight from the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California. Three of the five bouts were broadcast live on a special Wednesday night edition of ESPN Boxing. The main event featured an IBF middleweight title eliminator between Hassan N’Dam of France and Curtis Stevens of New York. Boxing stars like Gennady Golovkin, James Toney and others were spotted ringside, along with celebrities like Sylvester Stallone. It was a great night at the fights in a fun venue.

Diehard boxing fans were buzzing about the main event on social media all week. On paper this looked like a great style matchup between exciting, yet vulnerable, fighters. Stevens (27-4, 20KO) entered the ring having won two in a row since his knockout loss to Gennady Golovkin last year. N’Dam (30-1, 18KO), a native of Cameroon now residing in France, had won three in a row since his lone defeat to Peter Quillin in 2012. There had been some trash talk leading up to the match and both fighters appeared eager to get it on during their ring walks.

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N’Dam defeats Stevens

N'Dam defeats Stevens

In a rather dull fight, Former WBO 160 pound title holder Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam (31-1, 18 KOs) beat Curtis Stevens (27-5, 20 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision tonight to earn himself a shot at the winner of the fight this month between IBF middleweight champ Sam Soliman and former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor.

As expected, N’Dam did an awful lot of moving to keep out of the way of the harder punching Stevens in their fight at the Barker Hangar, in Santa Monica, California, USA. Stevens walked into a right hand in the 8th round and was knocked down. N’Dam foolishly tried to finish Stevens off, and got caught with a couple of big right hands from Stevens. Those shots from Stevens changed N’Dam’s mind about trying to score a knockout.

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Abraham vs Smith: ‘That’s What Happens In Germany’

Abraham vs Smith: ‘That’s What Happens In Germany’

First of all, congratulations to Paul Smith who delivered a career best performance, which he promised, on the night when it mattered the most. A monumental effort behind enemy lines, which was appreciated by every set of fully functioning eyeballs which had the joy of tuning in for what was a tremendous fight.

Isn’t it such a shame that we find ourselves on familiar ground once again, marveling at inconceivable ineptitude that points to the darker side of boxing, which has soiled its name for far too long.

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Abraham retains WBO title with unanimous points decision

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Arthur Abraham (41-4, 28 KOs) retained his WBO World Super Middleweight crown with a unanimous points decision against Paul Smith (35-4, 20 KOs) in Kiel, Germany. After twelve rounds of non-stop action in front of a sell-out crowd at the Sparkassen-Arena the judges scored the fight 117-111, 117-111 and 119-109 in favour of the defending champion.

‘’It was a tough fight,’’ said Abraham. ‘’Paul Smith was by no means an easy opponent and he made me work hard for the win. I was pleased with my performance. I feel that I have proved to myself, to my coach Ulli Wegner and to my fans that I still have what it takes. I’m not in decline and I look forward to more successful defences of my WBO title.’’

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Lebedev destroys Kolodziej; Drozd defeats Wlodarczyk

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WBC challenger Grigory Drozd (39-1, 27 KOs) did a good job of outworking World Boxing Council cruiserweight champion Krzysztof “Diablo” Wlodarczyk (49-3-1, 35 KOs) on Saturday night to beat him by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Dynamo Palace of Sports in Moscow, Russia.

Wlodarczyk was waiting too long to let his shots off in each round, and this enabled the much busier Drozd to win rounds based on being busier.

In the past, Wlodarczyk was able to win many of his fights simply by overpowering his busier opponents, but that didn’t work tonight. Drozd was able to take the best shots from Wlodarczyk and keep coming forward to land his own punches. Wlodarczyk was knocked down in the 8th round. Drozd did a good job of shutting Wlodarczyk down in the last half of the fight when he was trying hard to score a knockout.

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Abraham defeats Smith; Macklin decisions Yebes

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Paul Smith (35-4, 20 KOs) fought the fight of his life on Saturday night in losing a 12 round unanimous decision to WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (41-4, 28 KOs) by a set of scores that were far too wide at the Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Smith deserved a victory or at least a draw out of the fight because he was the one making the fight in many of the rounds. The judges scored the fight 117-111, 117-111 and 118-109

Abraham uncharacteristically went on the attack mode early in the fight in taking the fight to Smith. But after several rounds, Abraham slowed way down and spent much of each round covering up behind his high guard while Smith carefully landed shots to his head and body.

Abraham did a good job in throwing powerful jabs that frequently caught Smith while he was in punching range. But Smith was the one landing many of the cleaner shots. By the 8th, Smith appeared to be in control of the fight. Abraham was taking rounds off and letting Smith control the fight.

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Salido defeats Kokietgym in war

Salido defeats Kokietgym in war

Orlando Salido (42-12-2, 29 KOs) defeated the tough hard hitting #2 WBO Terdsak Kokietgym (53-5-1, 33 KOs) by a harder than expected 11th round knockout last Saturday night at the Auditorio Municipal Fausto Gutiérrez Moreno, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.

#1 WBO Salido won the interim WBO super featherweight title with the important victory. However, it was a hard fight for Salido, as he was put down on the canvas three times in the fight in getting dropped in the 1st, 2nd and 5th rounds.

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