British heavyweight Dillian Whyte was left stunned by Alexander Povetkin at Fight Camp on Saturday night.
The heavy-handed Russian landed a flush left uppercut against the pattern of the exchanges to win the fight by stoppage in the fifth round and send shockwaves through the heavyweight division.
Povetkin had just faced a difficult previous round, being dropped twice by Whyte and facing a race for the bell but came out resolute and strong at the start of the fifth round, and landed a salivating uppercut knocking his opponent out cold and ending the fight.
The fight began with superb control and technique by Whyte, sitting well behind the jab and trying to make inroads into the Povetkin guard with some crunching body shots, one seeming to rattle the Russian on the bell in the first round.
More crunching shots followed in the 2nd and 3rd round, with some heavy exchanges to the body from both men. Whyte hurt Povetkin yet again with a swift left-right combination prompting some anxious shouts from the veteran’s corner.
Becoming more and more in control, Whyte continued to pick off shots in the third, with ‘The Russian Vityaz’ seeming frustrated and unable to land any shots of notice, as Whyte’s control and domination of the fight continued.
However, the fourth round was really when Whyte asserted his authority, knocking down Povetkin for the first time with a superb left hook early on. The Russian rose to his feet but was then sent sprawling to the ground yet again, with a sweet left uppercut that seemed to signal the end was near for the 40-year-old. Despite this, Povetkin managed to survive until the bell, and take the killer instinct away from Whyte, missing a huge opportunity to end the fight.
What followed was simply spectacular, with Povetkin coming out with a new lease of life from his corner, and began the round with some excellent work, before entirely against the run of the fight, unleashed an explosive left uppercut sending Whyte crashing to the canvas out cold and winning via a simply stunning stoppage.
Povetkin became the WBC interim champion winning its Diamond belt and appearing to place a huge dent in Whyte’s assault on the WBC title, with hopes of a clash with Tyson Fury severely dampened, with the wait looking likely to be continued.
Katie Taylor prevailed once again in the rematch with Delfine Persoon at Fight Camp, winning by unanimous decision with the judge’s scorecards at 98-93 96-94 96-94, to retain the undisputed world lightweight titles.
The Irish fighter took control of the early stages of the fight and finished strongly in the closing rounds, boxing very neatly and landing some excellent shots throughout the fight, despite being under exerted pressure throughout the fight by Persoon, who will leave with her head held high, after producing an excellent powerful display once again to try and interrupt the pattern and style of Taylor, in a very even contest overall.
Taylor came out stronger early on, landing some superb shots in the opening couple of rounds trying to take away the pressure and negate Persoon coming forward, to avoid becoming involved in a brawl. The Belgian was seen with marking under her eye as a result of this composed shot selection by the champion but continued to plug away and tried to find gaps.
The challenger then began to smother Taylor through the middle rounds, applying constant pressure and continuing to unload with a huge amount of shots, and Taylor began to be involved in the scrap that she promised not to get into, struggling to cope with the consistent aggression of the Belgian.
Taylor then appeared to show damage, with swelling on the top of her head after being on the receiving end of some gruelling exchanges, with pundits unable to separate the two fighters with several close rounds to follow.
In the final two rounds, Taylor managed to assert more of her controlled style into the scrappy affair that had emerged, picking accurate and composed punches in the final round to take the decision to the scorecards and taking the dogged victory in another superb contest between the fighters.
‘KT’ remained undefeated and maintained her status as the undisputed lightweight champion, and arguably the pound-for-pound top fighter in women’s boxing, with little left to conquer in the sport.
Chris Kongo also ended his spell on inactivity with an impressive stoppage of Luther Clay to earn his 12th consecutive victory and capture the WBO Global Title.
The significantly taller Kongo fired home slicing combinations to Clay, whose corner saved him from any further onslaught in the ninth.
Heavyweight prospect and Dillian Whyte protege Alen Babic earnt a career-best victory over Shawndell Winters.
‘The Savage’ overwhelmed Winters with a flurry of ferocious combination as he marched towards a third-round stoppage win.
Zak Chelli and Jack Cullen battled to a split decision draw in an engaging battle at super-middleweight.
Chelli clearly felt he had done enough as he closed the distance and landed thudding shots, Cullen showed defensive discipline and made a strong start before Chelli asserted his will on the fight.
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