By Scott Gilfoid: In a fight a lot more one-sided than the scores that were handed down by the three judges, EBU welterweight champion Leonard Bundu (31-0-2, 11 KOs) stayed unbeaten in defeating previously unbeaten British challenger Frankie Gavin (19-1, 12 KOs) by a 12 round split decision on Friday night at the Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, United Kingdom. The final judges’ scores were 114-113, 114-113 for Bundu and 115-112 for Gavin.
Gavin spent much of the fight running, shoving, and holding. When he would throw punches it was weak jabs and left hands without any power on them. Gavin rarely sat down on his punches because he was always on his book foot and looking to escape the pressure that Bundu was putting on him.
Gavin was knocked down in the 6th from a left hand body shot. Gavin got up at the count of 7. While on the canvas, Gavin spit out his mouth piece. That’s sometimes a trick that fighters use to buy time after getting knocked down. The referee referee then marched Gavin over to his corner and had his mouthpiece washed off and reinserted. The whole process took at least 5-7 seconds, causing a delay in the action being resumed. When the action did finally restart, Bundu teed off on Gavin with body and head shots while Gavin cringed in the corner while partially bent over. Somehow Gavin made it out of the round, but just barely.
Bundo continued to batter Gavin in the 7th through the 10th rounds in battering him each time he could catch up to him.
After the fight, Gavin showed great sportsmanship in dashing out of the ring after the judges’ scores announced that Bundo was the winner. Bundu merely shook his head as Gavin ran out of the ring.
Bundu said “I barely hit him with the body shot that knocked him down. I think he still has an amateur style. This is the pros. You’ve got to stay in there. Sure, I’ll do a rematch for a lot of money. I want a world title shot.”
Gavin’s promoter Frank Warren said “Maybe we’ll do a rematch. I think Gavin won the fight.”
I think bad idea for Gavin to face Bundu again, because he doesn’t have the power to stand in there with this guy, and it’ll be the same result if they fight again. Bundo is a pressure fighter in the Shawn Porter mold, but obviously not quite as good as Porter. Gavin doesn’t have the power, chin or the ability to handle Bundu’s shots. I mean, if they fight 100 times, Bundu will beat Gavin 100 times because Gavin can’t punch and he just runs, holds and shoves, and he’s not going to be a talented fighter like Bundu.
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#8 WBC heavyweight contender Lucas Browne (21-0, 18 KOs) stayed unbeaten in defeating Andriy Rudenko (24-1, 16 KOs) by an unimpressive 12 round unanimous decision to win the vacant WBA Inter-Continental heavyweight title. The final judges’ scores were 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113. Browne looked slow and tired through most of the fight. He made a very average looking Rudenko look good, and that was hard to do because Rudenko was slow and weak with his shots from round one. Browne took a beating in the fight and ended up with a reddened right eye.
If Browne wants to win a world title, he’s going to need to fight a heck of a lot better than this because he looked horrible tonight. Based on this performance, I can’t even see Browne defeating WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev.
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