World Weekend Roundup: Charlo, Scott, Prieto, Achour Win

ByWellington Amadulu

It was one of the quieter Boxing weekends across the globe but there were still a few important contests that took place and to recap things, we start off at NRG Arena in the American city of Houston.

That’s where top light middle contender Jermell Charlo, 27-0 (12), battered 39 year old former WBA light middle titlist Joachim Alcine, 35-8-2 (21), enroute to a sixth round stoppage on Saturday night.

Aside from a few good wins, Alcine has been on the downside since getting dethroned by Daniel Santos in 2008 and the Montreal based veteran was in a tough situation from the start against the 25 year old Charlo, who landed hard shots in the first round.

Things got progressively worse for Alcine as Charlo applied pressure, closing distance and landing hurtful shots that increased in frequency as the bout wore on.

Charlo floored Alcine in the sixth and forced a stoppage as the visitor was in no position to deal with Charlo’s ensuing assault.

Heading south, we land in Argentine where the WBO Latino light heavyweight strap was fought over by local man Isidro Ranoni Prieto, 25-1-3 (21), and 41 year old Brazil based Mohamad Said, 42-10-1 (33), at Club Social y Deportivo El Povenir in Quilmes.

29 year old Prieto, coming off a loss in Canada to Eleider Alvarez for the WBC Silver belt in August, got back on track against the much shorter former middleweight Said, hammering the Syrian born veteran to the canvas in the first and second rounds before the contest was haled by KO at 0:41 of the second round.

Said, who fought top level opponents in America with some success during 2004-2006, sees a five year win streak snapped.

Popping across the pond, we hit the ground running in France at Gymnase du Clos de L’Arche in the Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Grand where French middleweight champ Karim Achour, 21-4-3 (4), annexed the vacant EU strap with his first stoppage since 2013.

In the opposite corner was arch-rival Moez Fhima, 23-4-2 (8), who held Archour to a draw in February for the French title.

This time the 28 year old from Pont-Sainte-Maxence took things out of the judges’ hands by halting Fhima in the tenth round of a scheduled twelve.

Next year, Archour will likely face the winner of European titlist Michel Soro’s upcoming defense against Matteo Signani.

Heading back in time, suddenly it’s Friday in the sunny American city of Orlando, where heavyweights Malik Scott, 38-2-1 (13), and Tony Thompson, 40-6 (27), clashed at the Venue at UFC.

Scott pulled off a bit of an upset in handily outpointing the more accomplished Thompson, who has wins over Odlanier Solis, Timur Ibragimov, Dominic Guinn, Luan Krasniqi and David Price.

At 35, Scott made the best of his youth advantage over the 44 year old Thompson, using movement and handspeed to win rounds but was nearly derailed when he was floored in the ninth round before regrouping to post a 98-91, 96-93 and 95-94.