In a drama-filled fight, Mairis Briedis (26-1, 19 KOs) unloaded on WBO champion Krzysztof Glowacki (31-2, 19 KOs) with everything but the kitchen sink in knocking down twice in the process of scoring a third round knockout in the final of the WBSS cruiserweight tournament on Saturday night at the Arena Riga in Riga, Latvia. Briedis knocked Glowacki down three times unofficially in the fight.
One of the knockdowns came well after the bell had sounded to end the second round. The referee Robert Byrd failed to end the round after the bell sounded. The person in charge of the bell continued to ring the bell to alert the referee, but he was couldn’t hear it.
In fairness to the referee Byrd, he might have heard the constant ringing of the bell, and thought it was someone from the crowd. That’s only a guess, because it’s hard to believe that the referee Byrd couldn’t hear the bell. One could easily hear the bell. Briedis said he had heard the bell, but he wasn’t going to stop fighting until the referee ended the round.
Second round was out of control
The fun began in the second round when the 32-year-old southpaw Glowacki hit Briedis with a textbook version of a punch to the back of the head. In other words, Glowacki nailed Briedis with an illegal rabbit punch. Briedis instinctively swung around and hit Glowacki with an illegal elbow that planted him on the canvas face first. Glowacki looked hurt as he clutched at his chin where he’d been hit by the stiff elbow from Briedis. Glowacki didn’t want to stay down thankfully.
When he got back up, Glowacki seemed to lose his head altogether, as he started swinging for the fences. He wasn’t staying composed, and boxing Briedis the way he should have. Glowacki fought like a person that had lost his temper, and was not thinking clearly. Briedis took advantage of Glowacki losing his composure, as he landed some nice shots that initially buzzed Glowacki. There was a brief moment where Glowacki could have saved himself if he’d grabbed Briedis in a clinch, but he failed to do so.
Briedis then dropped him hard. The referee gave Glowacki a standing eight count after he got back, and then he let the fight continue. The bell then sounded to end the round, but both fighters continued to slug away, because the referee wasn’t stopping it. Glowacki was in no position to defend himself, and he was dropped after getting hit with four big shots from Briedis. The referee finally realized the round had ended at that point.
As badly has as Glowacki was, he wasn’t going to recover in between rounds. Sure enough, Briedis went out and teed off on Glowacki and dropped him in the third round. The referee Byrd then stopped the fight.
Briedis now advances to the final to face IBF cruiserweight champion Yunier Dorticos, who had stopped Andrew Tabiti in the 10th round earlier tonight in their semifinal fight in the World Boxing Super Series on the same card.
