Unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) sent WBC champ Tyson Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) down to his first career defeat, beating him by a 12-round split decision to become the four-belt undisputed champion on Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena in Saudi Arabia.
Fury was badly hurt in round nine, and saved by the referee, who stopped the action to give him a count rather than waving it off. That should have been a knockout if the referee didn’t give Fury a count at the time, as he was still on his feet and badly hurt.
The scores:
115-112 Usyk
114-113 Usyk
14-113 Fury
Fury complained afterwards, feeling he’d been given a raw deal, saying he won the fight, and the only reason the judges gave it to Usyk is because of the war in Ukraine.
Jai Opetaia (25-0, 19 KOs) beat Mairis Briedis (28-3, 20 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision to win the vacating IBF cruiserweight title in the co-feature bout.
Briedis appeared to sweep rounds ten through twelve with his pressure, which had Opetaia looking scared and wanting no part of mixing it up with him.
It was not a good performance by Opetaia, as he seemed to shrink from the battle when Briedis took the fight to him in the championship rounds.
Opetaia crumbled mentally when he suffered a bloody nose in round ten, and from that point on, he was running and clinching. It was hard to watch. Fans in the audience had the look of disappointment on their faces.
The judges’ scores were 117-112, 116-112 and 116-112.
In the fight of the night, Anthony Cacace (22-1, 8 KOs) knocked out IBF super featherweight champion Joe Cordina (17-1, 9 KOs) in the eighth round in a big upset.
Cacace connected with a right hook that snapped Cordina’s head back sideways in the eighth, and then teed off on him, causing referee Bob Williams to step in and stop the fight.
Cordina might have been able to withstand the flurry, but given that he’d been hurt earlier in the fight in round three, the referee chose not to take any chances.
The fight probably should have been stopped in that round because Cordina took a lot of punishment and wasn’t the same from that point on.
Not known for his power, the wiry Irish southpaw took the fight to the hard-hitting Cordina, landing uppercuts and hooks from the first round.
In round three, Cacace dropped Cordina with a flurry of shots after hurting him earlier in the round. Cordina staggered back to his corner at the end of the round.
Cordina didn’t look like he ever recovered from the brutal punishment he took in the third. Cacace kept the pressure on in rounds four through seven, connecting with uppercuts and hooks that clearly bothered Cordina, who didn’t didn’t look at all comfortable.
Heavyweight contender Agit Kabayel (25-0, 17 KOs) dominated previously unbeaten Frank Sanchez (24-1, 17 KOs) in scoring seventh round body shot knockout. Kabael, 31, knocked Sanchez down twice with body shots. He dropped with a left to the body for the first knockdown and then put him down again with a stabbing left jab.
Kabayel was in control of the fight from the second round, taking advantage of Sanchez having a knee issue. He was wearing a knee brace, and he didn’t look like he was able to sit down on his shots the way he needed to keep Kabayel off. Referee Victor Loughlin stopped the fight at 2:33 of round seven.
Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Moses Itauma (9-0, 7 KOs) knocked out Ilja Mezencev (25-4, 21 KOs) by a second-round stoppage. Itauma landed a beautiful shot that put Mezencev down hard in round two. Mezencev looked in bad shape when he got back up, prompting referee Howard Foster to halt the bout. The time was at the 0:50 mark.
Itauma, 19, hurt the Kazakhstan-born Mezencev in the first round with a right hand late in the round. If there had been a little more time left in the round, Itauma would have finished him.
Lightweight Mark Chamberlain (16-0, 12 KOs) obliterated Joshua Wahab (23-2, 16 KOs), stopping him twice to score a lightning-quick first-round knockout to win the vacant WBC silver 135-lb title.
The contest was halted by referee Lee Every at the 2:42 mark. Wahab never recovered from the first knockdown and was dropped a second-time moments later by Chamberlain, who snowed him under with shots.
Unbeaten cruiserweight Robin Sirwan Safar (17-0, 12 KOs) may have finished off Sergey Kovalev’s (35-5-1, 29 KOs) career, winning a ten-round unanimous decision in a one-sided fight.
Safar, 31, knocked Kovalev down hard in the 10th round with a left hook followed by a devasting right hand. Kovalev beat the count and made it out of the round to escape being stppped.
Safer, 31, controlled most of the fight with his aggression, and power shots against the Kovalev. The judge’s scores were 95-94, 99-90, and 97-92.
The 41-year-old Kovalev looked his age tonight, showing none of the devasting power that he had a decade ago when he ruled the light heavyweight division as a unified champion and was avoided.
Light heavyweight Daniel Lapin (9-0, 4 KOs) made easy work of Octavio Pudivitr (9-2, 4 KOs), scoring a first-round knockout. in the first round. The southpaw Lapin hit Pudivitr with a right jab, and he immediately backed off.
Lapin then finished Pudivitr off with several shots, sending him to the canvas. Pudivitr’s left eye appeared to have been injured from the jab that Lapin hit him, and that was what led to him being stopped. The time of the stoppage was at 1:47 of the first round.
Featherweight Isaac Lowe (25-2-3, 8 KOs) put on a left hook clinic tonight, defeating Hasibullah Ahmadi (16-2, 5 KOs) in a ten-round one-sided contest in the first fight of tonight’s card.
Lowe knocked Ahmadi with a perfectly placed left hook to the head in the 8th round. The score was 97-92. In the early rounds, Ahmadi fought well, landing a lot of shots on the easy to hit Lowe, reddening his face.
However, in the second half of the fight, Lowe’s pressure and left-hand power proved too much for Ahmadi, who faded quickly. The win for the 30-year-old Lowe was his fourth consecutive.
Usyk vs. Fury
Ring Of Fire Undercard
