Live Results: Whittaker vs. Gavazi – Round by Round Coverage From Birmingham

Ben Whittaker (10-0-1, 7 KOs) made easy work of German fighter Benjamin Gavazi (19-2, 13 KOs) in a first-round knockout to win the WBC Silver light heavyweight title on Saturday night at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England.

The 2020 Olympic silver medalist, Whittaker, dropped the overmatched second-tier fighter Gavazi twice in the first round with right hands to the head. The first knockdown came from Whittaker backing Gavazi, 30, up with right hands, and then flattening him with a right hand to the back of the head.

Moments later, Whittaker landed a left followed by a right hand that put Gavazi down hard on his back. The contest was then halted. The referee then halted the contest.

It was hard to say how good Whittaker is because his opponent, Gavazi, was so poor. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:15 of round one. For an Olympian to be matched against this level of opposition at age 28 is a waste of time.

Live results of tonight’s action will be provided below.

Tom Cowling (15-1, 4 KOs) had to get off the deck to defeat Aaron Bowen (7-1, 5 KOs) by a 10-round split decision to win the vacant BBBofC Midlands Area middleweight title in the co-feature bout. The scores were 96-93 for Bowen, 95-94, and 95-94 for Cowling. Bowen dropped Cowling with a big right hand in round five. However, Cowling did a good job of avoiding Bowen’s punches from the sixth round on. There still wasn’t much to separate them in each round. Cowling landed a few more good shots to get the better of Bowen in rounds six through ten. It was a good scrap at the domestic level.

Cameron Vuong (9-0-1, 4 KOs) and Gavin Gwynne (18-4-2, 5 KOs) battled to a 10-round majority draw in their rematch at lightweight. The scores were 97-93 for Vuong, 95-95, and 95-95. The 35-year-old Gwynne came on in the second half of the fight to outwork a tired-looking Vuong.

Whatever chance Cameron, 23, had of winning, he blew it by holding constantly down the stretch and complaining to the referee about rabbit punches. He looked like a fighter who was trying to get rest breaks from the pressure that Gwynne was putting on him.

The draw tonight is an excuse for the promoters to put Vuong and Gwynne back in for a trilogy. They should move on and let other fighters get a chance. The fights have shown that Vuong doesn’t have a gas tank and is basically just a five-round fighter. At the mid-point of his fights, he’s got nothing left and holds on nonstop from that point.

Molly McCann (2-0, 1 KOs) defeated Ebanie Cotton (1-1) by a closer-than-expected six-round points decision in super bantamweight action. Cotton suffered a cut on her forehead in the third round.

She was getting dominated by the 35-year-old McCann through four rounds. However, Cotton’s volume punching and constant pressure allowed her to get the better of a tired-looking McCann in the fifth and sixth rounds. Referee Ryan Churchill scored it 58-56.

Ibraheem ‘Spider’ Sulaimaan (10-0, 5 KOs) scored a sixth-round TKO victory over Nico Ogbeide (6-2-1) to capture the vacant BBBofC Midlands Area super featherweight title. Sulaimann trapped Ogbeide against the ropes in the sixth and landed a flurry of unanswered shots, causing referee Chris Dean to step in and halt the fight. The official time was at 1:52 of round six.