By Matt Stein: Super middleweight contender Sakio Bika (28-3-2, 19 KO’s) made easy work of his over-matched Argentinean journeyman opponent Nestor Fabian Casanova (22-15, 9 KO’s), stopping him in the 1st round of a scheduled eight round bout on Thursday night at the Orion Function Centre, Campsie, in New South Wales, Australia.
Bika, the winner of the reality television series The Contender in 2007, dropped Casanova with a huge right hand 30 seconds into the first round. Shortly after that, Bika knocked Casanova down for a second time in the round with another huge right hand to the side of the head.
This time, referee Garry Dean stepped in and stopped the fight as Casanova was badly hurt and needed to be helped up and taken to his corner. Casanova, sporting a big lump under his left eye, remained sitting for a long period of time afterwards, appearing dazed and in pain from the shot that Bika had landed.
Casanova, 6’2”, used his height and reach to jab Bika from the outside early in the 1st round. Casanova showed a really good jab for a fighter with as many losses that he had on his record. Bika, however, blocked many of the jabs with his gloves but a few still leaked through and landed. 30 seconds into the round, Casanova attempted to land a right hand but at the same time, Bika came over the top with his own right and flattened Casanova sending him to the canvas.
Sporting redness under his right eye, Casanova got to his feet and was met with fire from Bika, who began to tag him with right hands and stalk around the ring intent to knock him out. Bika finally cornered Casanova but missed with several big right hands that landed to the shoulder area instead of the head.
Casanova attempted to slide out of the corner but was met with a big right hand that landed to the side of Casanova’s face, sending him down on the canvas near the ropes. The referee immediately stopped the bout after seeing how hurt Casanova was.
Bika, ranked number #5 in the IBF, #6 WBC and #13 in the WBO, said after the fight “I am the best fighter in the world. I don’t know why they didn’t let me fight in the Super Six Tournament…Mundine, if you think you are the man then come and fight me.” Bika is very interested in fighting former super middleweight champion Anthony Mundine, but thus far, Mundine has showed no interest in fighting Bika.
It’s not surprising because Bika looked very good against Casanova tonight. Granted, Casanova is a journeyman but the solid right hands that Bika was nailing him with would have given a lot of fighters trouble in the super middleweight division. Bika was beaten by Lucian Bute in 2006 and Joe Calzaghe in 2006, losing both fights by 12 round decision.
Calzaghe would later say that Bika was his toughest opponent of his career. Calzaghe ended up winning the fight against Bika by a lopsided decision, but the fight was actually much closer than the final scores would have you believe. Bika gave Calzaghe a great deal of problems in the fight and had him confused about what to do against him.
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