Martin Murray successfully defended his WBC silver middleweight title via a technical decision victory over Domenico Spada. In the seventh round, the ringside doctor decided that Spada wasn’t able to continue after being cut earlier in the fight by an accidental head but. After seven rounds, the official scorecards were 67-66, 68-63 and 69-67.
In an ugly fight with lots of holding, wrestling and head buts, Murray clearly proved to be the superior fighter. Avoiding most of Spada’s attack by using his defense and landing some decent combinations on the 34-year old Italian.
Spada hadn’t much to offer. He rushed in the whole fight, trying to wrestle with Murray and using a lot of rough tactics. In the third round, the Italian was cut by an accidental head but, which eventually caused the end of the fight.
Because of a new rule by the WBC, which forces the referee to deduct a point for an accidental head but which causes a cut on the other fighter, Murray lost a point in the third round. Luckily, the strange rule didn’t influence the outcome of the fight.
An interesting spectator at the fight was Gennady Golovkin. He told the commentators during the broadcast that he plans to fight for five more years and also confirmed the rumor that he is relocating to the United States.
At the press conference right after the fight, Golovkin was announced as Murray’s next opponent. Murray, who improved his record to 29-1-1, 12 KO’s), and Golovkin (31-0-2, 8 KO’s) will square off in February next year in the same venue where tonight’s fight took place.
While the main event was quite disappointing, the co-main event was a cracking fight which very well could be a fight-of-the-year contender. In a close and grueling fight, Randy Caballero won the vacant IBF bantamweight title, by defeating Stuart Hall. Caballero won a twelve-round unanimous decision. The official judges scores were 116-111, 116-111 and 118-109. ThaBoxingVoice.com scored the fight 116-11 in favor of Caballero.
After a fast start, Caballero knocked his opponent down with a straight right hand. However, Hall got up quickly and was fully recovered before the end of the round.
After the second round, the fight turned into a phone booth battle. Both fighters stood toe-to-toe and were teeing off at each other with very little defense being used. Both fighters had a lot of success in these continuous exchanges, and therefore there wasn’t a lot between them in these rounds.
The few moments where Caballero was able to use his feet and his superior boxing skills, he was clearly scoring the most points. However, it usually didn’t took long before Hall forced Caballero into a brawl again.
As the fight went on, the rounds got more and more intense. While both fighters were clearly tiring, Caballero definitely had the edge in the final rounds, ensuring the win on the scorecards.
The 24-year old Nicaraguan-American won his first world title in his professional career. Caballero, who is promoted by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, improved his unbeaten record to 22-0, 13 KO’s.
Hall, who lost the IBF Bantamweight title earlier this year against Paul Butler, sees his record drop to 16-4-2, 7 KO’s. However, after the great effort he gave tonight, it won’t take long before we will see Hall in a big fight again.
