KSI out-hustled Logan Paul in defeating him by a six round split decision in their celebrity match involving two huge Youtube stars on Saturday night on DAZN at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Both cruiserweight were making their debut tonight. KSI (1-0) wanted it more, and was willing to let his hands go. The scores were 56-55 for Paul, and 57-54, 56-55 KSI.
The 24-year-old Paul (0-1) was too conservative with his offense in mostly jabbing, and not throwing power shots. His trainer Shannon Briggs told him to throw right hands in every round, but he rarely did so. Paul fought like he was worried about gassing out and that ultimately cost him the fight.
The referee Jack Reiss also played a huge part in Paul’s loss with his uneven officiating. Resiss failed to give credit to KSI for knocking Logan down in round 3. The fact that Logan stayed down for a couple of seconds after the knockdown suggests that it was legit, but Reiss didn’t change his mind in waiving off the knockdown. Reiss appeared to failed to make the right call on several occasions.
In round 4, Reiss struck again by deducting two points from Paul after he dropped KSI with an uppercut, and then hit him while he was on the canvas. Two points was an extreme deduction.
Logan could have still made the fight a draw had he fought hard in the 6th round, but he gave it away by jabbing and not throwing power shots. KSI was the aggressor through most of the fight, which explains why he was given the win.
Nikita Ababiy DQ 1 Jonathan Batista
WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney (24-0, 15 KOs) put on a workmanlike performance in beating voluntary challenger Alfredo Santiago (12-1, 4 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision in the co-feature match.
The scores were 120-107, 120-107 and 120-107. Haney knocked Santiago down in the 5th. He wan’t unable to put him down a second time, as Santiago used his height and reach well to keep Haney on the outside.
Billy Joe Saunders beats Marcelo Coceres
WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (29-0, 14 KOs) retained his title with an 11th round knockout win over challenger Marcelo Coceres (28-1-1, 15 KOs), Saunders knocked down coceres three times in the 11th round to get the stoppage. It was not a great performance from Saunders. However, that didn’t prevent Saunders frmo caling out Saul Canelo Alvarez after the fight ended.
Coceres was getting the better of Saunders through the first 10 rounds before he hurt him and scored a knockdown in the 11th. The time of the stoppage was at 1:59.
Billy Joe Saunders TKO 11 Marcelo Esteban Coceres
Ronny Rios TKO 4 Hugo Berrio
Diego Pacheco TKO 4 Aaron Casper
Reshat Mati TKO 2 Cody Peterson
