In one the more poorer performances we’ve seen from WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs), he was forced to dig deep to beat fringe contender Artur Akavov (16-2, 7 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision tonight at the Paisley Lagoon Centre in Glasgow, Scotland. Saunders fought well enough to win between four to six rounds on this writer’s scorecards, but definitely not to deserve the victory.
Ashley “Treasure” Theophane (40-7-1, 11KO’s ) faced Yakabu Amidu (19-9-2, 17 KO’s ) in 10 rounds of action in the main event of Mayweather Promotions’ Sin City Showdown Friday night. Theophane came out focused and on cue with his game plan, he was able to deflect most of Amidu’s punches and break his opponent down. It was a steady 10 rounds of action, Theophane was able to break Amidu down with consistent jabs and body punches aiming consistently at his target, round after round. Amidu struggled to read Theophane, which ultimately led to Theophane to his 40th win, by way of unanimous decision.
Tonight at The Ice Palace in Moscow, unbeaten challenger Murat Gassiev scored a 12-round split decision victory over defending IBF cruiserweight champ Denis Lebedev. The new champion, now 24-0(17) prevailed via scores of 116-112 and 116-111, the third judge had it 114-113 for Lebedev, who is now 29-3(22).
A very tough, hard-fought battle, tonight’s main event saw both men take plenty of punches. Lebedev, the older man by a substantial 14 years at age 37, used his underrated boxing skills when he could, using plenty of movement and pumping out his sharp southpaw jab. Gassiev, so dangerous a puncher, stalked his man and though he was guilty of being one-paced at times, the challenger was both catching Lebedev with shots and making the older man work.
Tonight at The Ice Palace in Moscow, Russia brutal puncher Dmitriy Kudryashov scored yet another highlight reel KO as he iced Colombia’s Santander Silgado in the very first round. The stern-faced, bearded Kudryashov came out stalking right away, backing the 31 year old up from the get-go.
A hard left hand put Silgado down as he was along the ropes and he went down heavily. Bravely beating the count, Silgado was soon laid flat out by another left to the chin. As soon as the punch landed, Silgado was out, landing on his back, his arms outstretched. It was yet another chilling display of one-punch power from Kudryashov, who is now 20-1(20). Silgado, who has now been stopped on three occasions, falls to 27-4(21).
The action in the chief supporting bout to the Denis Lebedev-Murat Gassiev fight in Moscow, Russia delivered as advertised, as cruiserweights Maksim Vlasov halted Rakhim Chahkiev in a thriller of a slugfest. The two punchers went at it and exchanged knockdowns before Vlasov finally got the KO win early on in the 7th-round.
Now 37-2(19) and never having been stopped, 30 year old Vlasov has won his last seven fights, all at cruiserweight with him having moved up from 168 almost two years ago. 33 year old Chakhkiev, who falls to 26-3(19) has now lost two of his last four and the southpaw may struggle to get back into title contention.
MMA star Conor McGregor continues to talk and talk about a potential fight with Floyd Mayweather – this despite that fact that Mayweather and Dana White, with whom McGregor is contracted, say there is no real chance it will take place. The UFC champ remains hopeful the fight will happen and at an appearance in Belfast, McGregor spoke to the media about how he sees his chances against Mayweather.
“If I focus with the work ethic I have solely on the sport of boxing, there’s no telling what I could do,” McGregor said. “I would not go in there [against Mayweather] just to show up, I’d go in there to knock [Mayweather] out. He can be hit. He’s been hit before. Age waits for no man. I know the size is on my side. I know the reach is on my side. I know the youth is on my side.”
In the final LA FIGHT CLUB of 2016, Abraham “Chamaco” Lopez (22-0-1, 15 KOs) defended his NABA Featherweight title against Sergio “Micky” Lopez (20-13-1, 13 KOs). The bout was a tough one, with “El Chamaco” emerging with a unanimous decision victory that kept his undefeated record intact.
“He was definitely a warrior,” said Abraham Lopez. “I definitely thought that there was moments throughout the fight that he was going to go down, but it goes to show how tough he was. I definitely think that it was my night tonight.”
Ghana’s Emmanuel ‘Game Boy’ Tagoe is the new IBO Lightweight champion of the world following a dominant victory over former world champion, Mzonke Fana at the Bukom Boxing Arena in Accra in the early hours of Saturday.
Determined to realize the childhood dream of wearing a world championship belt, Tagoe wasted no time in taking the fight to his opponent, amid flooring Fana twice in the very first round to underline his intentions straight from the sound of the bell.
Top rated contender RICHARD COMMEY, (24-2-0, 22 KO’s) of Accra, Ghana, is leaving Moscow and heading home after suffering a hotly contested battle and controversial split decision loss to Russia’s DENIS SHAFIKOV, (38-2-1, 20 KO’s) today in their 12-round IBF Lightweight World Title Eliminator. Scores were 116-112 for Commey and 116-112, 115-113 for Shafikov.
Mandatory challenger Murat Gassiev battles unified cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev in bout that has explosive written all over it. The cruiserweight division is for the most part off the radar away from mainstream attention. Many of the sports long list of legends in the past reigned at middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight. Never a glamour division however in recent years it’s consistently produced great fights and top-ten matchups.
It’s been a nice alternative to many of the heavyweights nowadays, who are too large to keep an active punch rate and often end up gassing out midway thru a fight. The cruisers tend to be in better physical shape but still pack a punch which is the case in this unification dust-up. Take the two-belt champion in Denis Lebedev as example. He comes to fight, doesn’t lack power, and has a helluva chin. Murat Gassiev prefers to stalk his opponent and poses real one-punch knockout power which is evident by a nasty left hook ‘KO of the year’ candidate landed in his last fight in May.