Boxing In Poland: Jackiewicz Outpoints Rodriguez In IBF Title Eliminator

Last night at Hala Mosir in Elk, Poland, former European welter champion Rafal Jackiewicz posted a unanimous decision over visiting American Delvin Rodriguez to win an IBF title eliminator.

Local hero Jackiewicz had not lost since 2005 and had defeated the trio of Jackson Osei Bonsu, Jan Zavek and Luciano Abis in European title bouts over the past year.

Rodriguez brought the experience of having two very close bouts with Isaac Hlatshwayo over the same time period, which resulted in a draw during an IBF eliminator and then a narrow split decision loss for the IBF crown.

The American’s frustration would continue in Poland as well as Jackiewicz was hard to hit early on, outboxing the visitor until Rodriguez struck paydirt and canvassed the Pole in the sixth.

Jackiewicz beat the count and spent the middle rounds on the defensive until Rodriguez slowed down and a very close contest ensued the rest of the way.

The scorecards favored Jackiewicz by rather wide margins of 116-112, 115-112 and 114-112 and the 32 year old has now won 20 contests in a row.

Rodriguez drops to 24-4-2 (14).

On the undercard, cruiserweight Tomasz Hutkowski, 16-0-1 (11), outpointed well-traveled veteran Ismail Abdoul, 32-17-2 (13), over ten for the WBC Youth belt.

Former IBF cruiser kingpin Krzysztof Wlodarczky, 42-2-1 (31), stayed busy with an eight round points verdict over Konstantin Semerdjiev, 27-12-2 (16).