Fight Week Recap
Artur Beterbiev made his bid for pound-for-pound elite. The 38-year-old, who originally hails from Russia and now fights out of Canada, demolished former 168-pound world champion Callum Smith in seven fairly one-sided rounds. Smith started fading around the third and fourth rounds, and the unified light heavyweight champ began teeing off. The fight reached a climax in the seventh round when Beterbiev dropped the challenger twice. The second knockdown brought in legendary trainer and world champ Buddy McGirt to step in and stop the scheduled 12-rounder. Beterbiev remains the only world champion who has scored a stoppage in every one of his fights, moving to 20-0 (20), and retained his three light heavyweight titles. Smith took the second loss of his career and falls to 29-2 (21).
In the co-main event, the Canadian fan favorite got a major spotlight to showcase his incredibly fan-friendly style and seized the moment. After dominating the opening four rounds and busting up a rugged and determined Rohan Murdock, of Queensland Australia. The fifth round was the beginning of the end. Mbilli was softening up his man with vicious body shots and heavy, thudding headshots. Murdock continued to fight hard and was given a strong warning from his corner that they were going to stop the fight if their man did not step up. Murdock did just that and had perhaps his best round through the early part of the sixth round, however, Mbilli got to the Australian, and an explosive right hand sent Murdock reeling into the ropes. Mbilli poured on the heavy artillery towards the end of the round. Between the sixth and seventh rounds, Murdock’s corner decided to call a halt to the bout, and keep their man on the stool. Mbilli moved his record to 26-2 (22).
On the undercard portion, Australian world champion Jason Moloney, 27-2 (19), survived a scare and retained his WBO bantamweight World Championship title. In a back-and-forth affair with Saul Sanchez 20-3 (12). Sanchez was aggressive from the start and established himself. Moloney knew instantly he was in a fight and by round three, the Aussie got cooking and seemed to take control of the fight using his jab and throwing in combinations he appeared to be the superior fighter. However, Sanchez came roaring back, began to stand his ground, and landed on the inside. Sanchez landed flush one-twos and mixed in uppercuts, but not without sharp responses from Moloney. The two slugged it out over the final six minutes, and the judges leaned towards Moloney, which was ultimately different as Moloney took the majority decision by scores of 116-112x2, with the third judge scoring 114-114, a draw.
