Miguel Vazquez (34-3, 13 KOs) made the sixth defense of his IBF lightweight title Saturday by scoring a unanimous decision over Russia’s Denis Shafikov (33-1-1, 18 KOs) in Macau, China.
Vazquez moved and boxed effectively, as expected, but also seemed intent upon winging wide uppercuts to try and catch the forward-leaning and ever-pursuing Shafikov. The uppercuts delivered limited results, but provided for an even more awkward pairing of styles that led to several clashed of heads.
The southpaw Shafikov kept pushing forward throughout the fight, but was unable to cut off the ring. The IBF’s no. 3 contender at 135 lbs. was also unable to get within real punching distance of the long, lanky Mexican for enough time to launch any sort of sustained offensive surge.
With both fighters being nicked up from headbutts, there looked to be more war than was actually the case. The reality was that Vazquez had little trouble with a tough, but incomplete challenger.
After twelve rounds, The Boxing Tribune scored the fight 117-111 in favor of Vazquez. The official judges had the fight scored 115-113, 116-112, and 119-109– also in favor of Vazquez.
On the undercard, two-time Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming (4-0, 1 KO) scored his first professional knockout by stopping Thailand’s Yokthong Kokietgym (15-4, 11 KOs) in the seventh round of a scheduled eight-round flyweight bout.
Also, Filipino former super flyweight world titlist Marvin Sonsona (18-1-1, 15 KOs) stopped former junior featherweight titlist, Japan’s Akifumi Shimoda (28-4-2, 12 KOs) in the third round of a scheduled twelve-round featherweight bout.
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