By Scott Gilfoid: In surprising results, Frank Buglioni (19-2-1, 15 KOs) rallied to stop British light heavyweight champion Hosea Burton (18-1, 9 KOs) in the 12th round on Saturday night on the undercard of the clash between IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua vs. Eric Molina at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. Buglioni knocked the 28-year-old Burton down once in the 11th and twice in 12th round.
The referee Michael Alexander stopped the contest after Buglioni knocked Burton down in the 12th. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:56 of the 12th. Burton was doing well in the 12 before getting knocked down. Burton had come out strong at the start of the 12th and was landing nice shots to the head of Buglioni despite having been dropped in the previous round. However, Buglioni suddenly hurt Burton with a right hand to the head that put him down. After Burton got back to his feet, Buglioni charged after him and nailed him with two nice shots that send him down against the ropes. The referee stepped in and stopped the match at that point.’
I’ve got to give Buglioni a lot of credit for showing a ton of heart in coming back to get the stoppage in the 12th. He was clearly losing the fight all the way through, but he never stopped pressuring Burton.
In the 11th, Buglioni came on strong to hurt Burton with a right uppercut to the head. Buglioni then flurried on Burton to send him hanging on the ropes. The referee scored it as a knockdown due to the ropes holding Burton up. He was definitely hurt. Buglioni ran out of time in the round otherwise he likely would have finished the badly hurt Burton off.
For Buglioni, this was his second straight victory since his 12 round decision loss to for WBA super middleweight champion Fedor Chudinov in 2015. Buglioni had his moments in the Chudinov fight as well, and had him on the deck at one point in the fight, albeit after hitting him after the bell. Buglioni showed potential against Chudinov. Buglioni has now beaten Olegs Fedotovs and Burton in his last two fights. The win revives Buglioni’s boxing career. For Burton, it’s hard to know whether he goes from here. He seems to have major stamina problems that’s for sure. Maybe Burton can fix his stamina problems, but then again maybe he can’t. Buglioni likely won’t go far in the 175lb division though. His best chances of doing anything in boxing is if he moves backd down to 168. It would not be good news for Buglioni if he were to challenge the current top fighters at light heavyweight like Adonis Stevenson, Sergey Kovalev, Artur Beterbiev or Oleksandr Gvozdyk. Buglioni might give Nathan Cleverly problems though, but he’s seen by a lot of fans as a paper champion.