Heavyweight Arslanbek Makhmudov (21-2, 19 KOs) outworked a game Dave Allen (24-8-2, 19 KOs) to win a 12-round unanimous decision in their main event fight on Saturday night at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, England. The scores were 115-111, 116-110, and 117-109.
Allen took a lot of punishment in the fight, particularly in the 11th round. Makhmudov was hitting the tired, red-faced Allen at will with slow, heavy shots to the head. After the round ended, Allen sounded dispirited, talking to his trainer. You could tell that he didn’t have any fight left in him because he’d been hit too much.
The referee, Steve Gray, docked Makhmudov two points for holding in rounds 7 and 12. He was holding a lot, but it wasn’t a factor in the outcome. Allen wasn’t throwing enough and ate a lot of shots.
Results
Bilal Fawaz (10-1-1, 3 KOs) defeated Junaid Bostan (10-1-1, 8 KOs) by a 10-round majority decision to capture the BBBofC English junior middleweight title. It was a back-and-forth contest, making it almost impossible to score accurately. The scores were 96-94, 96-95 for Fawaz and 95-95.
The Nigerian-born Fawaz, 37, hurt Bostan in the third round with a left to the head. He then flurried on him with arm punches, but couldn’t get him out. In the fourth, Bostan hurt Fawaz with a powerful right hand and unloaded a storm of shots while he had him trapped against the ropes. Somehow, Fawaz made it out of the round without getting stopped.
Fawaz was the busier fighter in the last five rounds, throwing arm punches and moving around the ring to keep Bostan from getting at him. When Bostan did get near enough to land, he was connecting with big shots that had the crowd into it. There just wasn’t enough of them.
Josh Padley (17-1, 5 KOs) won a surprisingly wide 10-round unanimous decision over Reece Bellotti (20-7, 15 KOs) in a featherweight contest. Bellotti, 34, got the better of the action through the first six rounds and had Padley hurt with body shots in the sixth.
However, Padley came back strong in the seventh, landing nice combinations. Bellotti seemed to lose power on his punches in the final four rounds to enable Padley to take control. The scores were 99-92, 97-93, and 97-93. Boxing News 24 had it for Bellotti 6-4.
Hamza Uddin (6-0, 3 KOs) stopped Paul Roberts (7-7, 2 KOs) in the fifth round to capture the vacant BBBofC English flyweight title. Uddin, 22, dropped Roberts three times in round five. The final one was a left to the body, causing Roberts to take a knee in a delayed reaction. Robert’s corner threw in the towel at that point. Referee Michael Alexander halted the contest at 2:14 of round five.
