Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut– In what turned out to be little more than a Showtime-televised sparring session, Rances Barthelemy (21-0, 12 KOs) made the first defense of his IBF super featherweight title against Argentine survivalist Fernando Saucedo (52-6-3, 8 KOs) via unanimous decision.
The Three judges’ scorecards of 120-108 should tell the reader everything he/she needs to know regarding the one-sided nature of this contest. Barthelemy picked and pawed; Saucedo back-peddled and survived. This bout at the head of a premium cable triple header was nothing short of a huge laugh at the fans’ expense.
In the other two televised fights of the evening:
Dedicating his effort to his recently-deceased promoter Dan Goossen, Vanes Martirosyan (35-1-1, 21 KOs) looked solid in a key junior middleweight match-up, defeating the much taller Willie Nelson (23-2-1, 13 KOs) via unanimous decision by scores of 97-93, 97-93, and 96-94.
In a dreary and miserably uninteresting upset, club-level Tommy Karpency (24-4-1, 14 KOs) won a split decision over former world champ, Chad Dawson (32-4, 18 KOs) with just a bit more activity than the sleepwalking “Bad” Chad by scores of 96-94, 96-94, and 94-96. After the bout, Dawson claimed to have injured his shoulder and opined that his losing scorecard tallies may be the result of someone trying to run him out of the sport.
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