Boxing results from all major fights worldwide
The Ellesmere Port ace won the title by split-points decision – in just his 16th professional fight and only his second at bantamweight – by using his quick footwork and hand speed to beat the bigger and stronger Hall.
Butler, 25, thanked his loyal fans who cheered him to victory to become Ellesmere Port’s first ever world champion.
“That was the best night of my life, unbelievable, something I’ll always remember,” Said Butler.
This was a bright sunshiny day for boxing and the bout brought memories of the golden days of boxing – a sold out Garden, two gladiators without any “0s” to protect and seemingly free of corporate clog and Swiss bank restraint jackets.
Another great ingredient was the job done by the referee. If you didn’t catch his name or even notice him most of the time than he did a rare feat – he did his job right without even touching the boxers. The most impressive thing a referee can do is remain unobtrusive and unimposing. Michael Griffin set a very high standard and quietly outclassed noisy star referees who won’t stop hollering and physically engage the fighters with the risk of injury to all parties.
Andy Lee, Irish light middleweight contender (33-2, 23 kos) scored a massive 5th round KO win over John Jackson, WBC #4 to win the vacant NABF light middleweight (154lb) title last night at Madison Square Garden, New York City.
The courageous Lee showed character and determination in the early going following a knockdown in the first round caused by a heavy overhand right hook delivered by Jackson.
The Irishman was behind on the judges’ scorecards 39:36 as the 5th round commenced. Jackson launched a vicious assault with Lee against the ropes at the start of the round; Lee moved to his left out of the danger zone and quickly re-established his shape and composure. As Jackson moved in again Lee countered with a devastating right hand counter. Bang! Jackson was out cold as he slumped to the canvas.
Cecilia Brækhus (25-0, 7 KOs) successfully defended her WBC, WBO & WBA Female World Welterweight titles with a unanimous points victory over Jessica Balogun (24-4, 12 KOs) at the Sport and Congress Center in Schwerin, Germany last night.
Balogun proved a tough opponent but was ultimately outclassed by Brækhus. The judges scored the fight 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92 all in favour of the pound-for-pound number one.
‘’It was a tough fight, but I expected that. Jessica is one of the toughest fighters around,’’ said Brækhus. ‘’All in all I was pleased with my performance.
By Justin Jones — Manhattan, NY – If there was any doubt surrounding Miguel Cotto’s (39-4, 32 KOs) future hall of fame status, or uncertainty about who his signature victory would be against–as all the greats possess–last night’s stoppage of former middleweight kingpin Sergio Martinez (51-3-2, 28 KOs) was it ladies and gentleman.
Cotto proved to truly be Puerto Rico’s finest as he became the island’s first boxer to ever win a title in four different weight classes. What’s more impressive about the dominating performance is that he achieved the historic feat at Madison Square Garden (MSG), the world’s most famous arena, in front of a packed house of more than 20,000–the majority of them consisting of prideful and supportive fellow Puerto Ricans. Keep in mind he did this against one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world previously, and on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day parade. Most of all and frankly, the fight wasn’t even close.
Martinez was hurt in the opening minute of the fight by a powerful left hook from Cotto, and he never recovered from it. Cotto went on to knock a badly shaken Martinez 3 times in the 1st round, and a final time in the 9th in a 4-knockdown performance.
The fight was stopped at the start of the 10th round by Martinez’s trainer Pablo Sarmiento.
Saturday’s fights opened with Baltimore’s Cory Cummings (17-6, 13 KOs) battling Haitian amateur standout Azea Augustama (17-1, 9 KOs). Azea left the casino victorious but exposed, having won a narrow decision (76-75 on all three judges’ scorecards) after being knocked down early for the first time in his professional career.
Next, knockout artist Ahmed “The Egyptian” Elbiali (5-0, 5 KOs) scored the knockout of the evening against Yuwshau Zadok (2-2-1, 2 KOs). Zadok was a tough opponent, and Elbiali was cut in the second round from an apparent head butt. Nonetheless, Elbiali wore down Zadok with constant pressure and thunderous body blows. Late in the fourth round, just moments before the fight would be sent to the judges, the Egyptian landed a hard left hook that left his resilient opponent on the canvas for closer to ten minutes than ten seconds.
Tevin “American Idol” Farmer kept up his winning ways as he dominated World Boxing Council`s number 14th ranked Emmanuel “Manny” Gonzalez over ten rounds in their super featherweight bout en route to a unanimous decision by three scorecards, 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92.
Farmer took the fight to Gonzalez from the opening bell and never let up as he outworked and out landed him throughout the bout.
Farmer worked the body extremely well, hit Gonzalez from several angles and moved well around the ring as he kept Gonzalez from using his power and from getting into any kind of rhythm. Gonzalez landed more often in the second half of the matchup and connected on several powerful combinations; however, Framer still beat him to the punch and landed the more effective shots.
WBA light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (44-2, 32 KO’s) retained his WBA 175lb title with a 12 round unanimous decision win over Robert Bolonti (35-3, 24 KO’s) on Saturday night in a largely one-sided decision at the Sport and Congress Center, Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.
Braehmer did little more than jab and grab for 12 rounds to get an easy win over Bolonti. Braehmer didn’t have to worry about anything big coming back at him because Bolonti didn’t have the power or the size to make a fight of it. He looked like an averaged size middleweight trying to fight at an aging light heavyweight in 35-year-old Braehmer.
The final judges’ scores reflected the mismatch with the judges scoring it 118-109, 119-109 and 119-108.
The judges scored it 115-113, 117-111 for Butler, and 115-113 for Hall. Butler was very impressive with the beautiful combinations, the speed and the angles he was throwing his punches from. If had a little more power on his shots, it would have been a cut and dried case of him being the better fighter, but he didn’t have anywhere near the same kind of power that Hall did on his punches.
After the fight Butler said he would give Hall a rematch in order to clear up the controversy about the decision. Whether Hall gets a rematch or not remains to be seen.