Brazilian southpaw Patrick Teixeira (31-1, 22 KOs) captured the interim WBO Junior Middleweight World Championship with a unanimous decision victory against Dominican contender Carlos Adames (18-1, 14 KOs) at The Chelsea inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and live on ESPN+.
“I am very happy to bring a world title back to Brazil,” said Patrick Teixeira. “I want to make boxing bigger in Brazil. Soccer is our biggest sport, and this is a great moment for boxing in my country. It was tough with the cuts, but I was able to get through it because of my experience. It was a little harder, but my corner did an excellent job on the cuts. I felt like I needed to win the last round. It was a close fight. Every point was crucial, and I won the final round to win the fight.”
“We are so proud of Patrick Teixeira for capturing the interim WBO World Title at 154 pounds,” said Oscar De La Hoya, Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy. “It was a brutal and bloody war, but Teixeira really dug deep to earn himself the most important win of his career against a very dangerous fighter. We look forward to starting the new year with yet another champion in our stable.”
Charlie Shane moves to 8-0
Unbeaten super-middleweight Charlie Shane moved up to 8-0 with another points win at the York
Hall on Friday, November 29 on a Hellraiser Promotions show.
Signed to Joe Elfidh’s Boxing Connected promotions, the 28-year-old from Chatham defeated debutant Tom Barrett (0-1), who was cut and bruised under his right eye by Shane, but he wasn’t completely happy with his performance still.
“I won on points, but I felt a bit rusty, to be honest, but I’ve got that out of the way and now its onwards to something else,” he said.
The ring rust was to be expected after his first fight in 13 months, due to minor injuries keeping him
out of the ring. His next fight is scheduled for February 29 at Mote Park in Maidstone and has ambitions to challenge for a Southern Area title very soon after.
“I said I’d be looking for a title after this fight or possibly an eliminator for a title. I want to be a Southern Area or English champion next year, that’s the goal.”
The Kent-based southpaw recently signed a new contract with manager Joe Elfidh to keep him at Boxing Connected – formerly JE Promotions – for another three years. He explained his reasons for putting pen to paper with Elfidh again, “Because I trust Joe a lot and I’ve known him for a long time now, before I turned pro.”
Elfidh confirmed that he is looking to guide his super-middleweight talent towards an Area title next, “We’re going for the Southern Area title after this fight. He’s ready to be let off the leash now, still
only 28 and raring to go.”
The Southern Area super-middleweight title has just been vacated by Frank Warren’s prospect Zak Chelli (7-1), who freed the belt to fight for the English crown in his next fight against Jamal LeDoux
(8-1).
Now Swindon’s Sam Smith (8-2) and Londoner Germaine Brown (7-0) lock horns for the vacant strap
today, on November 30.
Nicknamed ‘The Animal’, Shane said, “I’m definitely looking at the winner of that fight. With our fights being on the same weekend, whoever wins will have the same time to prepare as me, so I’ll be staying ready.”
The emerging 168-pounder is trained by Ray Askew and Sam Latham at the thriving Invicta Gym in
Sheerness.
Shane debuted in March 2016 at Medway Park in Gillingham and claimed the British Challenge belt in his fifth fight at Mote Park in Maidstone against experienced veteran Lewis van Poetsch (6-52-1).
As an amateur, Shane won 25 from 30 fights, representing Medway clubs Brompton ABC, Golden Gloves, and St Mary’s, and reached the semi-finals of the prestigious Haringey Box Cup. He originally trained under the guidance of former world champion Johnny Armour when he first turned professional.
Onesmus Nekundi Takes Home Second WBF Title
Namibian late-bloomer Onesmus Nekundi captured the vacant World Boxing Federation (WBF) International Lightweight title on Saturday, November 30.
In Luanda, Angola, he put on an impressive performance, defeating hard-punching Portuguese veteran Antonio Joao Bento.
The WBF All Africa Champion at Super Featherweight going in, Nekundi took charge from the first round and applied heavy pressure on Joao Bento, who found it hard to send much the other way.
Joao Bento tried in spurts, but Nekundi had little trouble dealing with his attacks and was simply the stronger and fresher man.
After six rounds of more or less one-way traffic, referee Elroy Marshall from South Africa had seen enough in round seven and mercifully stopped the fight. Time of stoppage: 1:20.
Onesmus Nekundi improved his record to 10-5-3 (2), while Joao Bento, who made his paid debut over twenty years ago in 1999 and has held various WBA, WBC and IBF regional belts, drops to 33-18-3 (21).
Nekundi is a much better fighter than his spotted statistics suggest, and he appears to have found his true form as he hopes to continue building on his momentum towards even bigger fights.