World Weekend Boxing Roundup: Flanagan 2, Mathews 0

The biggest fight of the weekend took place at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England as old foes Terry Flanagan and Derry Mathews went at it again, this time for Flanagan’s WBO lightweight crown.

It was the second installment of the Terry and Derry show as the pair had initially tangled way back in October, 2012 as part of a Prizefighter tourney that Flanagan won, edging out Mathews in a three round semi-final bout after dropping him.

This time the stakes were much higher as the 26 year old Flanagan was putting his WBO belt on offer for the second time while Mathews, engaging in his 50th pro contest at age 32, finally had the genuine world title shot he’d been shooting for since joining the paid ranks in 2003.

One the bell rang in Mathews’ hometown of Liverpool, Flanagan looked to keep the challenger at a distance with footwork and a long jab while “Dirty Derry” was content to apply some pressure and study his adversary.

Things began to heat up a bit in the second as Mathews closed distance with some success and Flanagan began to employ roughhouse tactics to discourage the proximity.

Flanagan continued to be the busier and more accurate man but his grip on the fight started to loosen in the middle rounds as Mathews began to land hard punches of his own and the contest started to look like it could go either way.

But the youth advantage enjoyed by the champion became a factor over the championship rounds as Mathews just didn’t have the steam left to track down and come to grips with the quicker Manchester man, who was awarded a 115-112 card and a rather wide pair of 117-110 scores by the judges at ringside.

Flanagan keeps a perfect record at 30-0 (12) while Mathews put on a good performance to push a world champion hard, coming up short however and falling to 38-10-2 (20).

Next up for Flanagan could be a rematch with his number one challenger Jose Zepeda, who retired in the second round with an injury against Flanagan last July for the vacant WBO strap, or former titleholder Ricky Burns, who is the number two WBO challenger.

A matchup with Scotsman Burns would do big business, particularly in Glasgow.

On the undercard, ex-IBF Bantam champ Paul Butler, 21-1 (12), took nine rounds to chase down and put away speedy but badly outgunned Mexican visitor Sebastian Sanchez, 12-2 (9), who showed a lot of heart before being felled by body shots at 1:27 of the ninth for the vacant WBO International super fly title.

At the Jahnsportforum in Neubrandenburg, Germany, WBA light heavy king Juergen Braehmer, 48-2 (35), retained his crown for the sixth occasion as he posted a 116-111, 116-111, 118-110 unanimous decision over Eduard Gutknecht, 29-4-1 (12), whom Braehmer had already defeated in 2013 for the European title.

Braehmer had originally been scheduled to defend against Thomas Oosthuizen in what should have been perhaps the toughest challenge of the crafty southpaw’s career.

Gutknecht gave Braehmer some trouble in the later rounds but was unable to sustain his success and lost his second world title opportunity.

On Friday, it was revenge time for local luminary Jelena Mrdjenovich, 36-10-1 (19), who delighted fans at Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton, Canada by winning the WBC/WBA Female featherweight titles against Argentina’s Edith Soledad Matthysse, 14-8-1 (1).

Matthysse had defeated Mrdjenovich last August in Buenos Aires but was unable to repeat that in Canada as the two went at it with unbridled fury for 10 rounds.

Mrdjenovich fought through a bad cut to canvass Matthysse in the tenth and final round enroute to posting a 96-93, 96-93, 97-92 UD.

The most decorated Women boxer in Canadian history is now an eight time world champion at 33 years of age.