Oleksandr Uyk (23-0, 12 KOs) retained his unified heavyweight titles, beating Tyson Fury (34-2, 24 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision in a fight at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. The fight was more one-sided than the first one last May, with Usyk too fast, too active and too talented for Fury.
The scores were 116-112, 116-112, and 116-112.
In the sixth round, Usyk hammered Fury with combinations. It was all downhill for Fury from that round on, and it wasn’t competitive. Fury couldn’t do much and got hammered when he tried to go on the attack.
In rounds 11 and 12, Fury held frequently, looking to neutralize Usyk’s offense. It was clear that Fury had given up at that point.
After the fight, Daniel Dubois was allowed to enter the ring by the lead promoter of the event to call out Usyk.
Undercard Results
In the chief support bout, heavyweight Moses Itauma (11-0, 9 KOs) massacred the hapless Demsey McKean (22-2, 14 KOs), blasting him out in the first round, two knockdown performance. The 19-year-old Itauma clocked McKean with a left-hand punch behind the head for the first knockdown. McKean was in bad shape from the textbook rabbit punch from Itauma.
When the action resumed, Itauma telegraphed another left hand, but this one connected on 6’6″ McKean’s chin, sending him down for the second time in the round. The referee, Bob Williams, then halted the contest.
Overall, Itauma looked good, considering he was fed a tomato can coming off a 12th-round knockout loss to Filip Hrgovic in his previous fight. It would have been more interesting if Itauma’s matched him against Hrgovic because at least that’s a guy with some ability. McKean had been subdued by rabbit punch a world. The same thing happened tonight. Oh well, I guess that’s how it goes.
Serhii Bohachuk (25-2, 24 KOs) easily defeated substitute opponent Ishmael Davis (13-2, 6 KOs), scoring a sixth-round TKO victory in a WBC junior middleweight title eliminator. Davis fought well in the first round, using his jab, hard right hand, and movement to get the better of Bohachuk.
However, in round two, Davis made the mistake of trying to brawl with the heavy-handed Bohachuk in close and was dropped by a left hook to the head.
Davis tried to use movement and fighting on the inside to nullify Bohachuk’s power in rounds three and four, but it was no use. Bohachuk talked him, landing hard punches. In the fifth, Davis took an enormous amount of heavy shots from the Ukrainian Bohachuk. After the round, Davis staggered back to his corner, looking in bad shape.
In a black eye on tonight’s card, heavyweight prospect Johnny Fisher (13-0, 11 KOs) was given a 10-round split decision win over Dave Allen (23-7-2, 18 KOs). Allen dominated the fight from the fifth round, dropping Fisher in round five and hurting him in every round in the second half. The scores were 95-94, 95-94 for Fisher, and 96-93 for Allen. Fisher is a hype job, an entertainer-type heavyweight, but limited talent-wise. Tonight, we saw how limited he was, getting hurt by Allen repeatedly, using an illegal stiff arm, and holding nonstop to survive from the fifth.
Lee McGregor (15-1-1, 11 KOs) dodged a bullet, overcoming rough ninth and tenth rounds, to defeat Isaac Lowe (25-3-4, 8 KOs) by a ten-round unanimous decision to win the WBC International featherweight title. The judges’ scores were 96-92, 97-91, and 97-91.
Lowe, 30, had points deducted in rounds nine and ten for losing his mouthpiece. In total, he lost his gumshield eight times in the contest. The point deductions may have saved McGregor from being knocked out in the ninth and tenth, as he was hurt to the body and wilting.
Each time Lowe’s mouthpiece came out, the referee stopped the fight, taking a way a point. Interestingly, the referee didn’t police the nonstop holding from McGregor, which excessive and well-deserving of a deduction. It’s unlikely that would have changed the outcome because McGregor would have kept holding because he was badly hurt and had no other option but to hold in last two rounds.
With this performance or lack thereof by McGregor, you can’t say he was impressive and will go far. He’s okay for a domestic-level fighter, but he’s not equipped to fight at the world level. This fight along with the previous one is unworthy of being on Turki Alalshikh’s card tonight. It’s more of a small hall type of fight.
In a razor-close battle, Peter McGrail (11-1, 6 KOs) got off to a quick start and then held to defeat Rhys Edwards (16-1, 4 KOs) by a narrow 10-round unanimous decision. The judges’ scores were 96-95, 96-94, and 96-94. Edwards applied constant pressure on McGrail, and appeared to get the better of the action in the championship rounds. The contest was close enough to be a draw or a win for Edwards.
The tall 6’6″ light heavyweight Daniel Lapin (11-0, 4 KOs) outboxed the Frenchman Dylan Colin (14-1, 4 KOs), winning a wide 10-round unanimous decision to capture the IBF International 175-lb belt. Lapin jabbed and fired off solid shots against the shorter Colin, catching him as he came forward. Colin used nonstop pressure throughout but lacked the power to hurt Lapin. The judges were 100-90, 99-91, and 99-91.
Heavyweight prospect Andrii Novytskyi (14-0, 10 KOs) used his in-and-out style to defeat Edgar Ramirez (10-2-1, 4 KOs) by a wide 10-round unanimous decision. Novytskyi, 29, didn’t show much power, but he was effective with his one-two combinations. The judges’ scores were 98-92, 100-90, and 100-90. It would have been nice if Novytskiyi had shown more willingness to stay in the pocket, as his opponent looked flabby and not a threat to him. Against this kind of opposition, Novytskyi showed more ambition rather than throwing one or two shots and retreating.
Mohammed Alakel smashed Joshua Ocampo, nailing a unanimous decision in their 6-round scrap in the light division.
