By Matt Stein: Number #1 ranked WBA middleweight contender Hassan N’Dam (25-0, 17 KO’s) defeated number #2 ranked Avtandil Khurtsidze (22-2-2, 13 KO’s) by a close 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at Palais des Sports Porte de Versailles, Paris XV, Paris, France. The final judges’ scores were 117-111, 115-114 and 115-114.

With this win, the 26-year-old N’Dam captures the WBA interim middleweight title. Gennady Golovkin is the WBA middleweight champion. N’Dam fought really well in the first half of the fight, moving well and jabbing Khurtsidze continuously to the head.

N’Dam looked Mayeather-esque at times except that his defense was really lacking. He let the 5’4” Khurtsidze crowd him too much and too unnecessary punishment in the 2nd half of the fight. N’Dam was cut over both eyes from what appeared to be a series of head butts.

Khurtsidze, being much smaller, tended to lean forward with his head like a stocky bull and he often collided heads with N’Dam. In the open ring, N’Dam looked smooth on his feet and fast with his punches. N’Dam flurried on Khurtsidze 11th round and it looked like he was trying to end it.

Khurtsidze took the shots well and came back in the 12th and was landing with some huge shots as the bell sounded to end the fight. This was one of the better fights I’ve seen this year as it was action packed from start to finish.

N’Dam looked good for the most part, but he ran out of gas in the last part of the fight, and he let Khurtsidze crowd him far too much. I would have liked to have seen more power shots from N’Dam. While he looked flashy for a middleweight, his power was missing.

Khurtsidze had a lot to do with that because he pressured N’Dam constantly and seemed impervious to pain no matter how many times N’Dam hit him with clean shots in the fight. N’Dam would be trouble for a lot of the top middleweights in the division because of his speed, movement and tendency to throw of fast combinations.