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British Boxing took a big step forward this weekend with Anthony Joshua destroying IBF champion Charles Martin at the O2 Arena in London, England and the UK now boasts two world champions in the heavyweight division.
The 6’5 tall Martin was awarded the vacant title earlier this year in less than adversarial circumstances when his uneventful clash with Vyacheslav Glazkov ended when the Russian could not continue after injuring a knee.
On Saturday night, the American was in far deeper waters as he was facing Joshua, a man even taller than he, who had also captured the 2012 Olympic gold medal and finished off every one of his 15 professional opponents inside the distance.
Once the bell rang at the O2, Martin barely threw a punch as he was kept defensive by Joshua’s active jab and good footwork. The challenger soon began to ram home battering right hands that clearly were rattling the champion.
The second frame was much the same with the exception that Martin began to look for shots, but that only served to open him up further to Joshua’s powerful right, one of which left Martin on the seat of his pants.
Shortly afterward, Joshua turned the trick again, belting Martin with a sweet counter right that put the champion down again, harder this time.
Martin waited a fraction of a second too late to fully rise and was counted out by referee Jean-Pierre Van Imschoot at 1:32 of the second frame.
Joshua adds the IBF title to his trophy cabinet on his first attempt at world honors, seeing his pristine record to 16-0 (16). Martin suffered his first loss, dropping to 23-1-1 (23), with his fall from the world stage as quick as his entry just three months ago.
Another IBF champion on the bill had a better outcome but not without a glaring setback as featherweight king Lee Selby, 23-1 (8), bested awkward challenger Eric Hunter, 21-4 (11), over the distance.
Selby was more aggressive than usual as he stalked the shorter American, using a long jab and rights to the body and head in an attempt to take immediate command of the bout.
As a result, the Welshman proved vulnerable to a sweeping left hook from the challenger, which caught Selby high on the head and flung the champion to the canvas.
Selby wasn’t seriously hurt and saw out the remainder of the round as Hunter tried his best to finish off the popular home fighter, but to no avail.
Hunter proved to be cagey the rest of the way, looking to trap and potshot, succeeding at times with stinging blows but Selby was the busier man and connected with many right hands that won rounds as well as disrupted the challenger’s approach.
When scores were read, “Lightning Lee” captured the cards by margins of 115-111, 116-110 and 116-110. Later this year, the 29 year old Barry man could possibly face the winner of a reported showdown between WBA featherweight champ Leo Santa Cruz and IBF super bantam ace Carl Frampton.
In the third world title clash on the bill, WBA bantam ruler Jamie McDonnell, 28-2-1 (13), capably handled fleet-footed last replacement challenger Fernando Vargas, 29-10 (20), before catching up with the Mexican veteran and producing a stoppage at 2:39 of the ninth round.
McDonnell could either stay at bantam and try to unify the belts or move up a weight class and tangle with former WBA super bantam kingpin Scott Quigg in what would surely be a very big money spinner in the north of England.
On the undercard, there were several quality matchups, the best of which saw Matthew Macklin, 35-6 (22), and Brian Rose, 28-4-1 (8), battle for the vacant IBF Intercontinental middleweight title.
There were many competitive moments with each man losing a point late in the contest, which Macklin won on scores of 113-113, 115-111 and 115-111.
Rose put on a very good performance, particularly in the second half of the scrap and probably did no worse than force a draw, despite the official scorecards, and certainly deserves a rematch.
Former super middleweight world title challenger George Groves, 23-3 (18), knocked out inexperienced and outgunned opponent David Brophy, 16-1-1 (1), at 0:47 of the fourth round.
There was a massive showdown across the pond at the storied MGM Grand in Boxing-mad Las Vegas with welterweights Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley slugging it out for a third time, with the WBO International trophy on offer.
Pacquaio was reportedly fighting with a healthy right shoulder for the first occasion in quite some time and the 37 year old Filipino looked to be in fine form in his first appearance following a high-profile loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr almost a year ago.
Bradley gave a fine performance as well but wasn’t quite elusive enough as the explosive Pacquiao got through with the better shots and won the contest on the strength of knocking down Bradley in the seventh and ninth rounds.
That proved too much for the American to overcome as he lost a 116-110 UD on all three cards, falling to 33-2-1 (13).
Pacquiao improves to 58-6-2 (38) and it will be interesting to see if he keeps his promise to retire from the sport and focus on his political career.
Also in Las Vegas, the WBO super middle title changed hands as reigning champion Arthur Abraham, 44-5 (29), had trouble dealing with challenger Gilberto Ramirez, 34-0 (24).
At 24, Ramirez was far fresher and energetic than the much shorter, 36 year old champion, who had trouble mounting a consistent offense against a lanky, ever-mobile target.
Ramirez outworked Abraham, who had his moments but not nearly enough as the Mexican challenger swept all three cards by a surprisingly wide 120-108 margin.
