Konecny stops Larbi, wins interim WBO light middleweight title

By Boxing News - 04/05/2012 - Comments

Image: Konecny stops Larbi, wins interim WBO light middleweight titleBy Jim Dower: 33-year-old EBU light middleweight champion Lukas Konecny (48-3, 23 KO’s) defeated Frances’ Salim Larbi (17-2-1, 4 KO’s) by a 7th round TKO on Thursday night to capture the interim WBO light middleweight title at the Vodova Arena, Brno, Czech Republic. Konecny flattened Larbi in the 7th. The fight was then halted by referee Andre Van Grootenbruel.

The heavy-handed Konecny dominated Larbi from Larbi from start to finish, hitting him with powerful body shots and hoking him to the head. Larbi, who had no power to speak of, fought the best he could be constantly firing back. However, Larbi played into Konecny’s plans by fighting his game and made it a lot easier than it already was.

Larbi came into the fight with very little experience against quality fighter, and it was no surprise that he was out of his element in this fight.

The first two rounds set the pattern of the fight with the little hitting out of his class Larbi circling around the ring, jabbing and trying to stay out of range of the head-handed Ricky Hatton-like Konecny. It worked somewhat for Larbi but he was still getting royally hammered with shots to the body and head by Konecny, who proved to be excellent at cutting off the ring.

The third round was easily the best round in the fight, as Larbi suddenly stopped running and opened up with a flurry of body and head shots. All total, Larbi landed over 20 consecutive punches before Konecny was finally able to answer back with some of his own. Konecny took over the remainder of the round as he fought back in a furious manner trying to even up the score, and in the end he did. However, Larbi exposed Konecny for all his weakness. He’s a heavy handed fighter with good power, but too short and too easy to hit for him to ever be the main guy or a paper champion.

The fight was pretty much over after the third round, as Larbi stopped punched and just ran for his life from rounds four through seven, while Konecny stalked him and landed virtually all the shots. Konecny was cut on the bridge of his nose while taking punishment in the 3rd round and it got a lot worse in the 4th and subsequent rounds. It didn’t matter, though, because he continued to have his way with Larbi.

In the 7th, Konecny flailed away at Larbi until landing a right cross that sent Larbi down to the canvas. He got back to his feet but the referee stopped the fight anyway.