By Kenneth Friedman: Undefeated #1 WBA Alexander Besputin (14-0, 9 KOs) captured the vacant World Boxing Association secondary welterweight title in beating previously undefeated Radzhab Butaev (12-1, 9 KOs) on Saturday night in a hard fought 12 round unanimous decision at the Casino de Monte Carlo in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
The judges scores were 116-112, 116-112, 16-112. Boxing News 24 scored it for the 28-year-old Russian southpaw Besputin by the score 117-111.
Butaev had no answer for Besputin’s offense
Besputin dominated virtually every round of the fight with his solid left hands, and hard right hooks. He used a lot of shifty movements to keep the slower Butaev guessing.
In the 10th, Besputin was cut on the inside of his right eye. He had to deal with the cut the rest of the way, but it didn’t appear to impact his performance in any real way.
It was purely bluecollar effort by Besputin, who looked good, but not in the same talent class as the main WBA welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, IBF/WBC champion Errol Spence Jr. or WBO champ Terence Crawford. Besputin looked good, but well below the more established welterweights.
At the end of the fight, Besputin called out Crawford, saying he would like to fight him in a unification match.
Besputin calls out Terence Crawford
“I was very confident that I was winning the fight, but I did get tired late on,” said Besputin. “We have a big history between us, I showed that I’m ready for the big arena. I’d like to unify titles, Terence Crawford is in the division, we’ll see what’s next.”
It would be surprising if Besputin’s management agreed to put him in with the 32-year-old Crawford (35-0, 26 KOs), because he wouldn’t have much of a shot at winning the belt. It would make sense for Besputin to take that fight if he gets a huge payday. But apart from that, he’s better off milking his WBa title against the contenders in the WBA’s top 15 rankings.
Cecilia Braekhus decisions Victoria Bustos
Unbeaten WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO and IBO female welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus (36-0, 9 KOs) defeated challenger Victoria Bustos (19-6, 0 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision.
The scores were 99-91, 98-92, 98-92 win. Boxing News 24 scored it for Braekhus by the score 99-91. It was another easy title defense for Braekhus.
Although Braekhus is getting up there in age at 38, she’s still fighting at a high level, especially when facing over-matched opposition like Bustos.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn says he wants to match Braekhus against Katie Taylor next summer after one more fight for the two of them.
“That was a great performance from Cecilia. The future is Katie Taylor against Cecilia Braekhus,” said Hearn. “Another fight for both in the spring and then they will fight in the summer. It’s the biggest fight in boxing.”
Zhilei Zhang beats Andriy Rudenko
Two time Chinese Olympian super heavyweight Zhilei Zhang (21-0, 16 KOs) looked good in winning a 10 round unanimous decision over Andriy Rudenko (32-6, 20 KOs). There was a lot of good two-way action in this fight. This probably would have been a more one-sided fight if not for the 36-year-old Zhang being overweight, and coming off of a 14 month layoff. The scores were 99-91, 98-92, 97-93.
Joe Cordina decisions Enrique Tinoco
Undefeated super featherweight Joe Cordina (11-0, 7 KOs) beat journeyman Enrique Tinoco (18-6-4, 13 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision. The scores were 98-92, 98-92, 96-94. With the win, Cordina captured the WBA Continental super featherweight strap.