NICE, California — The Premier Boxing Champions on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Deportes series Toe to Toe Tuesdays gave fans three televised fights — and delivered three stoppages.
Kazakhstani junior welterweight Sergey Lipinets landed a short, sneaky left hook to the body of Georgian contender Levan Ghvamichava in the fifth round of the main event, and Ghvamichava was unable to beat referee Edward Collantes’ count.
Prior to the knockout, the fight was a very even one and an interesting clash of styles. Lipinets (9-0, 7 KOs) was the slicker boxer whose shots had more steam on them. Ghvamichava (16-2-1, 12 KOs) stood pretty flat-footed, but also threw and landed slightly more punches before suffering the debilitating body shot.
A devastating body shot sealed the victory by #TKO for Sergey Lipinets in the main event on #PBConFS1https://t.co/ZMvNEQO636
— PBC (@premierboxing) March 16, 2016
In the co-main event, Ukrainian super middleweight Sergiy Derevyanchenko put in a workmanlike performance for five rounds before really stepping on the gas in rounds six through eight to ultimately score a TKO victory over American Mike Guy in the eighth and final round.
Derevyanchenko took control from the start, nearly doubling Guy 74 to 39 in the punches landed department through the first four rounds per CompuBox. But Guy was there to do more than just collect his check, and caused Derevyanchenko some sporadic problems in rounds three and five.
Eventually Derevyanchenko (8-0, 6 KOs) badly hurt Guy (8-2-1, 4 KOs) at the end of the sixth round, and continued pouring on the pressure until he simply overwhelmed Guy in the final frame.
Back-to-back knockdowns by Derevyanchenko, first to the head, now to the body, winning by TKO in the 8th. #PBConFS1 https://t.co/6sET9si6Nx
— PBC (@premierboxing) March 16, 2016
The first fight shown on the televised portion of the card was a junior welterweight scrap between American Kevin Watts and Michal Chudecki of Poland. The contest started off very slowly in the first two rounds, with Watts taking his jolly time to find the distance while Chudecki landed an occasional straight left to the body.
Things finally heated up in the third round when Watts picked up on a bad habit of Chudecki’s — his tendency to follow Watts around the ring like a lost puppy instead of cutting the ring off. Watts realized that if he moved more laterally, Chudecki would walk right into his power punches. Watts then started throwing devastating hooks and really took control of the action in the third and fourth rounds.
Kevin Watts floors Michal Chudecki early in Round 5 with a vicious left hand. #PBConFS1 https://t.co/rKm7C1B03V
— PBC (@premierboxing) March 16, 2016
The end came at the 2:01 mark of the fifth stanza after Watts (11-0, 4 KOs) dropped Chudecki (11-2-1, 3 KOs) early in the round with an enormous left hook, and then followed it up with another minute’s worth of power shots which forced the third man in the ring to halt the action.
FOLLOW THE ACTION: Kevin Watts walks down Michal Chudecki to a 5th Round TKO! #PBConFS1 https://t.co/tMHgo9auou
— PBC (@premierboxing) March 16, 2016
(All videos courtesy of the Premier Boxing Champions Twitter page)
