Abril defeats Bogere; Russell Jr. decisions Gusev

By Boxing News - 03/02/2013 - Comments

001AbrilvsBogereIMG_6674(Photo credit: Casino/Showtime) By Jim Dower: WBA World lightweight champion Richard Abril (18-3-1, 8 KO’s) defeated the physical Sharif Bogere (23-1, 15 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The final judges’ scores were 115-111, 116-110, 116-110. Abril lost 1 point for holding in the 8th. Bogere had a point deducted in the 12th for leading with his head.

Bogere led with head throughout the fight, and constantly banged heads with Abril. In response to the constant head-butts, Abril grabbed Bogere constantly to pull down on his head or clinch whenever he would come within range. After losing a point in the 8th for holding, Abril really turned up the heat by tagging Bogere at will. Abril controlled the action for the remainder of the fight.

Abril’s 5’11” height and four inch reach advantage was too much for the 5’6” Bogere.

After the fight, Abril said “I want to fight Adrien Broner next, but I don’t want it to be a dirty fight.”

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Undefeated featherweight contender Gary Russell Jr. (22-0, 13 KOs) easily beat an over-matched Vyacheslav Gusev (20-3, 5 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were 100-89, 100-89 and 100-89. Russell Jr. dropped Gusev with a right hand counter in the 3rd round that caused Gusev to touch his glove to the canvas for a knockdown.

In the 6th round, the southpaw Russell Jr. injured his left hand, and was forced to use just his right hand the remainder of the way. It didn’t matter because Gusev rarely threw punches in the fight, and just looked like he was trying to survive.

Russell Jr. said after the fight that he wants to fight Juan Manuel Lopez next. That’s obviously not going to happen, so hopefully Russell Jr. finally faces first actual contender because he’s facing guys that are too far below his talent level, and he’s going to be kind of in shock when he eventually does fight for a title.

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Other boxing results on the card:

Jorge Melendez TKO 4 Ryan Davis
Jeffrey Fontanez UD 6 Daniel Attah
Sammy Vasquez TKO 2 Leandro Albonoz
Luis Arias TKO 1 Arsenio Terraza
Thomas Williams Jr. TKO 3 Kevin Engel



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