World Weekend Boxing Roundup: Blackwell Defends British Belt

It was a pretty quiet weekend across the globe but there were a few clashes of note and we kick things off over in jolly old England, where British middleweight champ Nick Blackwell was in action at City Academy Sports Centre in Bristol.

Blackwell, 19-3-1 (8), retained his domestic strap for the second time but was taken the distance by lanky late replacement challenger Jack Arnfield, 19-2 (4), producing a 115-112, 117-111, 117-110 UD victory.

Arnfield, who was stepping up several levels in competition by facing Blackwell, had a good start in the bout, keeping the champion at a distance while unleashing successful attacks at times.

But the more experienced Blackwell managed to get to grips with his adversary, putting the challenger on the canvas in the fifth frame but could not finish off the Blackpool man.

Blackwell was in control down the stretch but Arnfield gave a very good account of himself in his first 12 round contest.

At Anhalt Arena in Dessau, Germany, one of Women Boxing’s top operators was in action as WBO female super feather ruler Ramona Kuehne, 24-1 (9), retained her belt for the sixth consecutive occasion by halting the challenge of previously undefeated Erika Kalderas, 11-1 (4), at 1:00 of the fifth round.

Kuehne had been scheduled to step all the way up to welterweight to challenge undisputed champion Cecilia Braekhus in September but the pairing was scrapped when the headlining contest of Wladimir Klitschko vs. Tyson Fury was rescheduled for later this month.

At Terminal Ice Palace in Brovari, Ukraine, cruiserweight Umar Salamov, 14-0 (11), retained his WBO European crown with a 117-111, 118-110, 118-110 points verdict over Doudou Ngumbu, 34-7 (13).

Over in Barcelona, Spain, EU super lightweight boss Sandor Martin, 25-1 (9), inched closer to a European title shot with a fourth round stoppage of former EU lightweight champ Gyorgy Mizsei Jr, 22-16 (13) at Pabellon del Bon Pastor.

Whipping thru the straits of Gibraltar and sailing across the Atlantic, we run aground in Argentina where local icon Anahi Esther Sanchez, 12-0 (5), retained the Interim WBA female featherweight strap with a third round finishing of Ana Lozano, 11-4 (8), who came up from the super bantamweight class, at Gimnasio Municipal in Pergamino.

Sanchez could be on a collision course with countrywoman Edith Soledad Matthysse, the reigning WBC/WBA female featherweight champion.

Skipping northward, we land in Boxing mad Mexico, where heavy-handed lightweight Adrian Estrella, 24-1 (22), captured the vacant WBC Latino bauble by banging out Orlen Padilla, 21-6-1 (19), in the sixth round at Auditorio Miguel Barragan in San Luis Potosi.

On Friday, the action was in Japan where IBF female light fly queen Naoko Shibata, 14-3-1 (4), was held to a split draw by southpaw Maria Salinas, 11-4-3 (4), in a bruising affair at the famed Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

Jumping all the way back to Wednesday, we find ourselves in Melbourne, Australia where former two-time world champion at super middle, Anthony Mundine, 47-7 (27), was bashed up by 29 year old American Charles Hatley, 26-1-1 (18), before getting stopped in the 11th round at the Covention & Exhibition Centre.

40 year old Mundine lost the WBC Silver super welter crown and his reported possible rematch with arch-rival Danny Green could be in jeopardy.