World Weekend Roundup: Froch, Donaire, Soliman, Walters Win

ByWellington Amadulu

Good action on tap for this past weekend, with a total of seven world title fights that took place!

First and foremost was the IBF/WBA super middleweight title rematch on Saturday in London, England as defending champion Carl Froch once again faced his nemesis George Groves, this time in front of 80,000 rabid fans at Wembley Stadium.

Froch, 33-2 (24), stood off from Groves, 19-2 (16), and cautiously boxed the local man and the approach paid off as “The Cobra” sparked out “The Saint” with a perfect right hand to the chin that ended matters at 2:43 of the eighth round.

The undercard featured Jamie McDonnell, 24-2-1 (11), halting Tabtimdaeng Na Rachawat, 52-3 (34), in the tenth to annex the vacant WBA bantam crown while super middle James DeGale, 19-1 (13), became one of Froch’s mandatory challengers by stopping Brandon Gonzales, 18-1-1 (10), at 2:38 of the fourth.

Our next stop is at Konig Palast in Krefeld, Germany where longtime middleweight contender Sam Soliman, 44-11 (18), unseated IBF champion Felix Sturm, 39-4-2 (18), in a rematch.

Chief support was provided by Susi Kentikian, 33-2 (17), who finished off Dan-Bi Kim, 9-3-1 (2), at 1:36 of the ninth round in a WBA Female flyweight title fight.

We jump now all the way across the world to Macao, China where there was a massive bill at the Cotai Arena featuring three world featherweight title bouts.

Featherweight Nonito Donaire, 33-2 (22), is once again a world champ as the cut he suffered against reigning WBA “Super” titlist Simphiwe Vetyeka, 26-3 (16), forced the bout to end after four rounds. Donaire, who had knocked down Vetyeka, was awarded the technical decision on three scores of 49-46.

Nicholas Walters, 24-0 (20), won the biggest fight of his career in defense of his WBA “Regular” featherweight belt, banging out former world champ Vic Darchinyan, 39-6-1 (28), at 2:22 of the fifth.

IBF featherweight ruler Evgeny Gradovich, 19-0 (10), came off the canvas to post a 118-110, 117-110, 117-110 UD over Alexander Miskirtchian, 24-3-1 (9).

Heading to America, an important bout between contenders Javier Fortuna, 25-0-1 (18), and Juan Antonio Rodriguez, 26-5 (23), took place at super feather in Las Vegas as Fortuna was just too slick for Rodriguez, producing a 98-91 UD win on all three cards at The Tropicana.

An high profile contest at heavyweight occurred on Friday at Luzhniki in Moscow, Russia as former world champion Alexander Povetkin, 27-1 (19), outboxed and then KO’d Manuel Charr, 26-2 (15), at 1:09 of the seventh round to capture the vacant WBC International strap.