By Nate Anderson: undefeated super middleweight Kenny Anderson (9-0, 7 KOs) stopped journeyman Hastings Rasani (20-38-2, 16 KOs) in the 3rd round of a scheduled six-round bout tonight at Kelvin Hall, in Glasgow, Scotland.
Anderson, 25 from Scotland, struggled in the first two rounds, taking heavy shots in order to get his much lighter punches in on Rasani. In the third round, appearing to be trailing two rounds to zero, Anderson connected with a hard right hand to the head of Rasani, staggering him and sending him backing to the ropes.
Anderson then moved in and tagged him with hail of punches to the head and body against the ropes. After Anderson hit him with one final volley, the referee stepped in and halted the bout with Rasani still on his feet.
The unbeaten Anderson looked good at times in the first round, throwing nice combinations. However, he kept getting hit with power shots – uppercuts and right hands – and hard jabs from Rasani in the round.
By comparison, Anderson’s punches were much weaker and slower, arriving well behind Rasani’s huge shots. In the first half of the second round, Anderson looked very impressive, landing a huge amount of hard right hands to the head of Rasani.
However, Anderson walked into a lot of hard right hands from Rasani in the second half of the round and showed a lot of defensive lapses. For a few moments there, I wasn’t sure whether or not Anderson would be able to make it out of the round because he was getting hit with some tremendous shots from Rasani during the round.
Let’s be clear, Rasani may have a poor record, have a terrible defense and a mediocre chin, but his power is first class as far as I can tell. In the third round, Anderson started off well, throwing hard right hands and getting the crowd into the fight with each right hand.
After several moments, Anderson staggered Rasani with a hard right hand that staggered Rasani, sending him backing away to the ropes. Anderson then followed after him, and nailed him with a downpour or punches to the head. The referee stepped in quickly, perhaps a shade too quickly, as Anderson was just getting started unloading his artillery.
I’m not sure precisely whether Rasani could have made it out of the round or not, but it seems as if the referee did him no favors by not at least giving him a chance to see if he could make it out of the round in one piece.
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