Nigeria's Samuel Peter survived three knockdowns en route to a 12-round unanimous decision over Jameel McCline of the US in New York on Saturday to cement his World Boxing Council interim heavyweight title.
McCline, a late replacement in the bout that was to have seen Peter challenge Russian Oleg Maskaev for the WBC crown, knocked down Peter at the end of the second round and twice in the third.
But by the fifth the momentum had swung Peter's way and the powerful puncher did enough through the rest of the fight to earn the decision.
PHOTO: AFP
"That's why I stood up -- I'm the champion," Peter said.
The judges scored it 113-112, 115-111 and 115-110 for the Nigerian, who was awarded the interim champion tag by the WBC after Maskaev's injury withdrawal from his mandatory title defense.
Peter, who said in a post-fight television interview he was fighting with an injured hand, improved to 29-1 with 22 knockouts.
McCline, 37, fell to 38-8-3 with 23-knockouts after his fourth miss in a title attempt.
He acknowledged that Peter may have done enough to win the fight, but was dismayed by the disparity of the scores.
"I concede maybe a 1-point loss or a split decision, but unanimous, come on," he said.
But McCline knew he missed a golden chance in the third round, when he sent Peter down twice.
"I let the opportunity get away," McCline said. "I thought I had him. He got away. That's why he's the champion."
McCline's first title shot was for the WBO belt held by Wladimir Klitschko in 2002, when he failed to answer the bell for the 11th.
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds said it felt like an “impossible dream” when fellow Hollywood A-lister Rob McElhenney first floated the idea of buying soccer club Wrexham, along with a pitch for a documentary. The ultimate goal was reaching the Premier League. Four years after they purchased the north Wales outfit, Wrexham are one league away from achieving their lofty goal after a 3-0 win over Charlton Athletic on Saturday saw them promoted for a record third consecutive time. “We were standing there doing a press conference four years ago, and said our goal is to make it to the Premier League, and
RSS