Catterall clearly defeats Giyasov on points, Mizuki Hiruta defends her world title with ease and Frank Sanchez shocks Richard Torrez Jr. with a brutal knockout
The undercard of the crossover fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Rico Verhoeven produced some interesting results last night at the pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
In front of the impressive backdrop of one of the seven wonders of the world, Jack Catterall prevailed against Shakhram Giyasov to secure the regular WBA welterweight title. Catterall (33-2, 14 knockouts) delivered a dominant performance and won by unanimous points decision. At the same time, he inflicted the first defeat of his professional career on Giyasov (17-1, 10 knockouts).
The Brit got off to the better start and sent the Uzbek to the floor with a straight left hand to the chin in the opening round. After twelve rounds, the referee’s official scorecards read 119-108, 116-111 and 118-109.
Further down the fight card, Mizuki Hiruta put in a dominant performance against Mai Soliman to successfully defend her WBO super flyweight world title. Hiruta (11-0, 2 knockouts) won unanimously on points after ten one-sided rounds. The judges’ scores were 98-92, 98-92 and 99-91, ending a nine-fight winning streak for Soliman (10-2, 6 knockouts) in her first attempt to win a world title.
Frank Sanchez shocks Richard Torrez Jr. with brutal knockout in round two
In the heavyweight division, Frank Sanchez provided an exclamation point with a one-punch knockout in the second round against the previously unbeaten Richard Torrez Jr. Sanchez (26-1, 19 knockouts) hit Torrez (14-1, 12 knockouts) with a hard right hand to the chin and ended the fight spectacularly in round two.
There was also a big surprise of the evening. Usyk’s stablemate Daniel Lapin (13-1, 5 knockouts) suffered the first defeat of his career. The Ukrainian light heavyweight had a disastrous evening and was knocked down a total of four times in the course of his TKO defeat in round four against Benjamin Mendes Tani (10-1, 3 knockouts).