This past weekend saw the first boxing telecast of the year Friday night on Spike TV followed the next day by an early selection for Fight of the Year and a new world champion was crowned Saturday night on Showtime.
What a fight it was as WBC champion Badou Jack and IBF champion James DeGale battled to a 12 round draw on the Showtime Championship Boxing main event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Both fighters were down and fought to the final bell.
In the co main event Gervonta Davis (17-0, 16 KO’s) stopped the previously unbeaten Jose Pedraza (22-1, 12 KO’s) in the seventh round to win the IBF junior lightweight championship.
Also that night on Showtime Extreme Amanda Serrano (31-1-1, 23 KOs) won a decision over Yazmin Rivas (35-10-1, 10 KOs) to defend her WBO female junior featherweight title in what was the first nationally televised women’s world title bout in nearly a decade, since Mary Jo Saunders vs. Valerie Mahfood in 2007….. Middleweight Immanuwel Aleem (17-0-1, 10 KO’s) pulled off an upset with a sixth round technical knockout over Levegen Khytrov (14-1, 12 KO’s).
Kicking off the boxing weekend was WBA super welterweight champion Erislandy Lara (24-2-2, 14 KOs) scored a fourth round knockout over former world champion Yuri Foreman at Hialeah Park Racing and Casino in Miami, Florida on the PBC on Spike TV main event.
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