2023-11-15 03:44:00
Steve Claggett took a significant step forward in his quest to secure his first career world championship fight, while Steven Butler showed that the path to another opportunity at the top could be particularly complicated.
In the final of an Eye of the Tiger Management gala presented Tuesday evening at the Cabaret du Casino de Montréal, the Albertan defended his NABF super-lightweight belt in addition to winning the WBO international belt thanks to to his victory by unanimous decision of the judges (99-91, 99-91 and 98-92) against the Mexican Miguel Madueno.
In the semifinals, in his first outing since his defeat against WBO middleweight champion Zhanibek Alimkhanuly last May, Butler (33-4-1, 27 KOs) beat Ivan Alvarez (32-15- 4) by stoppage by the referee at 2:36 of the 9th round at the end of a frenzied duel during which the defense was not in the spotlight.
In the other fights that were presented on the undercard, Imam Khataev (5-0, 5 KOs) and Mehmat Nadir Ünal (7-0, 6 KOs) were as brilliant as they had been in their last outing on October 11, this time making short work of Fernando Galvan (8-9-1) and Jaime Hernandez Lopez (10-11), respectively. Khataev prevailed by referee stoppage at 0:44 of the 2nd round after hitting Galvan in the head with a powerful right, while Ünal forced his rival to retire after the 2nd assault, presumably due to a shoulder injury.
Even if he didn’t look much at first glance, Grzegorz Mardyla (1-1-1) gave an interesting opposition to Wilkens Mathieu (5-0), who won by unanimous decision that the three judges handed out cards of 60-54. Mardyla, an ex-kickboxer, presented a watertight defense that forced Mathieu to work harder than he expected. The athlete from the Quebec region hopes to be back in the ring on January 13 at the Videotron Center.
In the opening, the French Moreno Fendero (2-0, 1 KO) offered himself a first victory before the limit of his career by beating Cristian Lopez Lozano (2-3) by stoppage of the referee at 1: 05 of the 2nd round. Fendero had no difficulty in placing his powerful left throughout the fight, notably sending the Mexican to the floor in the first attack thanks to the latter. The clash was stopped when Lopez Lozano was against the cables and no longer seemed able to protect himself.
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