By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBO Avtandil Khurtsidze (33-2-2, 22 KOs) showed his class tonight in rallying to defeat the previously unbeaten #3 WBO Tommy Langford (18-1, 6 KOs) by a 5th round knockout to win the interim World Boxing Organization middleweight title on Saturday night at the Leicester Arena, Leicester, Leicestershire, United Kingdom.
The 37-year-old Khurtsidze dropped Langford with a scorching left hook to the head in the 5th round. A badly hurt Langford got back to his feet, but he referee decided to halt the fight after seeing how hurt the British fighter was. As hurt as Langford was, he would have been smashed immediately by the Mike Tyson-like Khurtsidze.
There was no coming back for Langford. He was done. The referee officially halted the fight at 0:27 of round 5. It would have been nice if Langford had been allowed to continue after the knockdown, but the referee looked closely at him and decided that he didn’t want him to continue. With the way that Khurtsidze was punching, he might have poleaxed Langford with a single power shot if the fight had been allowed to continue. I think that’s what the referee wanted to avoid.
In rounds 1 through 4, Langford did a lot of moving and holding to tie up the 5’4” Khurtsidze. The taller 5’11” Langford did a good job of throwing fast combinations to catch the shorter fighter. However, Khurtsidze was still landing some really hard left hooks and right hands to the head of Langford. Khurtsidze was landing straight through the middle of Langford’s defense when he would get close enough. The body shots that Khurtsidze was landing in close looked very, very powerful. I was surprised that Langford didn’t get knocked down from those shots.
Going into the 5th, Langford looked exhausted. The combination of pressure and the body shots that Langford was getting hit with by Khurtsidze seemed to have drained him like a battery. The movement that Langford was using at all times was also a factor that wore him down. Langford had no ability to fight in a one-on-one manner the way he needed to. It was all hit and move with Langford in the in rounds 1 through 4.
You can speculate how Langford would have done had he not been clipped by the big left hook from Khurtsidze. I think that Langford would have been worn down and stopped anyway, because he was tiring. Khurtsidze was hitting Langford in the bread basket over and over again, and it was getting to him. Looking at Langford’s face going into round 5, he looked worn down and not the fighter that started out the contest.
I had Langford up 3 rounds to 1 after 4 rounds. He clearly was winning the fight, but it was one of those things where Khurtsidze was getting to him with his hard shots. He was wearing him down.
After the fight, WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders was interviewed. He said that Khurtsidze is “made to order” for him and that’s just another “Danny Devito.” Saunders said, “I’ll retire if I lose to him.” Saunders was really mouthing off something fierce. This probably wasn’t the news that Saunders wanted with Khurtsidze winning the fight, because the light hitting Langford would be a much easier fight for him. Saunders will need to use his boxing skills to try and beat Khurtsidze, and I don’t know that he can.