In a massive win, IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten WBC champ Tyson Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) by a 12-round split decision to become the undisputed champion on Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena in Saudi Arabia.
Fury was badly hurt in the ninth and the referee surprisingly gave Fury a count rather than stopping it. The fight should have been stopped in my eyes.
The scores were 115-112, 114-113 for Usyk and 14-113 for Fury.
After the fight, Fury was in denial, showing that he’s a poor sport, saying Usyk only won because he’s from Ukraine and the country is at war with Russia. It was sad to see Fury showing a lack of class,
Undercard results:
Fighting in a defensive Shakur-esque safety-first manner, Jai Opetaia (25-0, 19 KOs) had a tougher time than expected, defeating former unified cruiserweight champion Mairis Briedis (28-3, 20 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision win the vacant IBF title. The scores were 117-112, 116-112 and 116-112.
The southpaw Opetaia looked good when he was on the front foot, using his European style of fighting, but each time Briedis came forward, he would retreat and not stand in the ground.
In the sixth, Opetaia bloodied Briedis’ nose with a short left hook. The fight was chess match until the tenth when Briedis put pressure on Opetaia, bloodying his nose and hurting him.
Opetaia looked scared, and you could see the fear in him as the round ended. In rounds 11 and 12, Briedis chased Opetaia around the ring, hitting him with hard shots each time he caught up to him.
Overall, it was like a repeat of the first fight between them two years ago. In that fight, Opetaia looked brave in the first eight rounds, but looked afraid after getting his jaw busted by Brieids and gave away the last three to four rounds. The takeaway from this fight is that Opetaia can dish it out, but he has no heart for someone to fight him back. His style is dull.
Anthony Cacace (22-1, 8 KOs) pulled off a big upset, stopping previously unbeaten IBF super featherweight champion Joe Cordina (17-1, 9 KOs) in the eighth round.
The southpaw Cacace, 35, hurt Cordina with a right hand around his guard in the eight, and then unloaded with a storm of punches that caused the referee Bob Williams to step in and stop the fight. The time of the stoppage was at 39 seconds of round eight.
Earlier in the fight, the Irish fighter Cacace dropped Cordina with a right to the head in the third round after hammering the daylights out of him. Cordina had been hurt earlier when Cacace him on the break. It looked like he never recovered from that shot.
Cacace had his way with Cordina from the fourth round, hitting him with shots around the guard and pushing a fast pace.
In a big surprise, heavyweight contender Agit Kabayel (25-0, 17 KOs) wore down and stopped previously unbeaten Frank Sanchez (24-1, 17 KOs) in the seventh round. The time of the stoppage was at 2:33 of round seven.
Kabayel dropped the 29-year-old Cuban Sanchez twice with body shots in round seven to get the knockout. Referee Victor Loughlin counted out Sanchez. after the second knockdown.
In the first knockdown, Kabayel landed a left hook to the body of Sanchez, sending him to the canvas. When action resumed, Kabayel chased a hurt Sanchez and dropped him with a stabbing jab to the body. Sanchez was too hurt to get back to his feet. The body attack from Kabayel was too much for Sanchez.
Heavyweight prospect Moses Itauma (9-0, 7 KOs) blew out Ilja Mezencev (25-4, 21 KOs) by a second-round knockout. Itauma, 19, dropped Mezencev with a hard right hand. When Mezencev got to his feet, the referee, Howard Foster, stopped the contest because he was on wobbly legs. The time of the stoppage was 0:50 of the second round.
Itauma had Mezencev, 28, hurt late in the first round after nailing him with a right hand that shook him badly. He messed up his chances of scoring the knockdown by pushing Mezencev to the canvas rather than finishing him off.
Mark Chamberlain (16-0, 12 KOs) destroyed Joshua Wahab (23-2, 16 KOs) by a first-round technical knockout to capture the vacant WBC silver lightweight title. Chamberlain, 25, dropped Wahab twice in the round.
The referee, Lee Every, waved it off after the second knockdown. The time of the stoppage was at 2:42 of the first. Chamberlain looked good with his combination punching, drilling Wahab with shots.
The first knockdown was a hard left to the head that put Wahab down hard. Moments later, Chamberlain dropped Wahab for the second time in the round with a storm of shots.
Chamberlain looks good against this level of opponent, but it might be a different story if he gets in with the top guys at lightweight. If he can hang around long enough to wait out the top guys, he could capture a title at 135, but definitely not now.
Cruiserweight Robin Sirwan Safar (17-0, 12 KOs) stayed unbeaten with a ten round unanimous decision over former unified light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (35-5-1, 29 KOs). Safer, 31, controlled most of the fight with his aggression, and power shots against the Kovalev. The scores were 95-94, 99-90 and 97-92.
In the tenth round, Safer dropped the 41-year-old Kovalev with a left hook followed by a right hand in the last ten seconds of the round.
Fortunately for Kovalev, the knockdown occurred near the end of the round because he would have been stopped if there was more time. Kovalev hadn’t fought for two years since 2022, and he looked ring rusty. The power that Kovalev once had in the light heavyweight division hasn’t carried up to cruiserweight. He’s a fish out of water in this division.
Lanky 6’4″ light heavyweight prospect Daniel Lapin (9-0, 4 KOs) stopped Octavio Pudivitr (9-2, 4 KOs) in the first round. The thinly built southpaw Lapin, 26, connected with a jab to the head of Pudivitr, causing him to retreat to the ropes.
Lapin then connected with several shots with Pudvitr that sent him to the canvas. While Pudivitr, 36, was down, Lapin hit him three more times in the head.
The referee then waved it off. The time of the stoppage was at 1:47 of round one. It appeared that Pudivtr suffered a right eye injury.
Featherweight Isaac Lowe (25-2-3, 8 KOs) dominated Hasibullah Ahmadi (16-2, 5 KOs), winning a ten-round points decision. The score was 97-92. Lowe dropped the 23-year-old Ahmadi with a beautiful left hook to the head in round eight.
Somehow, Ahmadi made it out of the round without getting dropped again, but he was in bad shape when the round was over, staggering back to his corner. In the final two rounds, Ahmadi did a good job of tying Lowe up to keep from getting knocked out.
