By Scott Gilfoid: As I predicted earlier, unbeaten junior middleweight Sergey Rabchenko (21-0, 16 KO’s) wore down Ryan Rhodes (46-6, 31 KO’s) and blasted him out with a peach of a left hand to the body that put Rhodes down for the count in agony in the 7th round on Saturday night at the Velodrome, Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom.

Rhodes was in too much pain from the shot to continue unfortunately for him. In winning the fight, the 26-year-old Rabchenko captures the vacant EBU (European) light middleweight title.

Rhodes fought halfway decent in the first four rounds by landing jabs and scurrying away before the powerful Rabchenko could land anything big. But from the 5th round on, Rabchenko began to land big shots that were wearing down the Brit Rhodes. It was only a matter of time before Rabchenko put Rhodes out of his misery. That opportunity came in the 7th when Rhodes, trying to be too slick, left himself open for a big left hand to the body and was dropped. There was no way Rhodes would be able to continue fighting because of the incredible pain he was in. Rabchenko can really punch.

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In a disappointing fight, Rendall Munroe (24-2, 10 KO’s) and Scott Quigg (24-0, 17 KO’s) fought to a 3rd round technical draw in their fight for the vacant WBA interim super bantamweight title. Munroe was really giving it to Quigg when the two fighters clashed heads in the 3rd, causing a huge cut above the right eye of Munroe. No way could he continue fighting with that big gusher dripping red blood all over the canvas himself. The fight was then halted at :43 of the 3rd. It was lucky for Quigg that the fight ended early, because I think he would have been worn down by Munroe had it gone the full 12.

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Other results:

Richard Towers KO 9 Gregory Tony
Martin Murray Pts 10 Karim Achour
Craig Watson Pts 6 Tomasz Mazurkiewicz
Adam Etches TKO 2 Ferenc Zold
Lucas Browne TKO 1 Hastings Rasani
Adam Little Pts 6 Dee Mitchell
Scott Jenkins Pts 4 Kristian Laight
Kallum De’Ath Pts 4 Anwar Alfadli
Louis Norman Pts 4 Delroy Spencer