By Mike Smith: Unbeaten Kudratillo Abdukakhorov (16-0, 9 KOs) defeated #6 IBF Keita Obara (20-4-1, 18 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night to earn the IBF mandatory spot as champion Errol Spence’s next mandatory challenger.
Obara was on the verge of being knocked out in the 10th round when he was getting hit with a lot of hard shots by Abdukakhorov. Somehow, Obara stayed upright and was able to make it out of the round.
Abdukakhorov earned the position the easy way in beating the recently knocked out Obara by hitting him with a massive amount of shots. Abdukakhorov’s lack of power and hand speed made it possible for Obara to stay upright to the end of the fight despite getting hit a lot.
Fighting on the undercard of Oleksander Gvozdyk vs. Doudou Ngumbu on ESPN, Abdukakhorov, 25, pounded out a decision win by the scores 118-110, 117-111 and 115-111. Boxing News 24 scored it for Abdukakhorov by the score 118-110. Competitive, this fight was not. Abdukakhorov beat the hapless Obara like a drum for 12 one-sided rounds.
The fight took place at the 2300 Arena, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Nicknamed, ‘The Punisher”, Abdukakhorov dominated the action from start to finish in tagging the 32-year-old Obara with shots. It was mostly one-sided apart from an occasional weak shot thrown back by Obara. It’s unclear why the International Boxing Federation had Abdukakhorov fighting Obara, as he was recently knocked out in the second round last year in April by Alvin Lagumbay. One would think that Obara’s recent loss to Lagumbay should have eliminated him from being considered for an IBF title eliminator against Abdukakhorov, but the IBF still sanctioned the contest.
The Malaysia based Abdukakhorov, who was born in Uzbekistan, hit Obara with everything but the kitchen sink, but he couldn’t hurt him due to his lack of punching power. Abdukakhorov is a good basic fighter, but he lacks punching power. Spence is going to have a big advantage in talent and power over Abdukakhorov when the two eventually face each other. The IBF will likely be ordering that fight soon. Spence would be better off capturing the WBC belt from Shawn Porter, and dumping the IBF title so that he doesn’t get tied down making defenses against guys that bring nothing to the table.
This isn’t the first time Obara was involved in a world title eliminator. Three years ago, he fought Eduard Troyanovsky in an IBF title eliminator, and was knocked out in the second round. With Obara losing badly to Abdukakhorov, you have to wonder how many more opportunities he’s going to get. It would have been nice to see someone else get a chance like Jessie Vargas, Alexander Besputin or Bakhtiyar Eyubov.