Vitali Klitschko retained his WBC heavyweight title with a first-round knockout of Odlanier Solis, who injured his knee in the fall on Saturday.
Klitschko’s right to Solis’ left temple staggered the Cuban, who wobbled back then fell on his back and clutched his right knee.
Solis managed to beat the count, but was unsteady on his feet as referee Jose Guadalupe Garcia of Mexico called the fight.
“It was a full blow,” Klitschko said in the ring, with the crowd in Cologne’s indoor arena booing.
Klitschko’s punch came in the final second of the first round, after Solis hit him on the chin with a right.
“It was definitely my knee,” Solis said, also in the ring. “It could be that I took a wrong step.”
He hobbled with help back to his dressing room and was taken to a hospital on a stretcher to have a scan on his knee.
Solis’ promoter Ahmet Oner insisted it was the injury and not Klitschko’s blow that ended the fight.
“He will now have a scan and probably have surgery immediately. He seems to have torn ligaments,” Oner said.
The sudden end stunned the crowd, which booed and whistled for a long time.
Solis, a 30-year-old former three-time world amateur champ, fell to his first defeat in 18 pro fights.
The 39-year-old Klitschko improved to 42-2.
Solis fought a solid first round, taking the initiative and connecting with a couple of rights despite giving up 15cm in height to the Ukrainian champion, who relied on his left jab until the last-second punch.
Vitali’s younger brother Wladimir, the IBF and WBO champ, fights WBA belt-holder David Haye in June or July. Solis, the 2004 Olympic champ, beat Haye to win one of his amateur world titles.
BUTE V MAGEE
AFP, MONTREAL
Undefeated Lucian Bute made his seventh successful defense of the IBF super middleweight crown on Saturday by stopping Northern Ireland’s Brian Magee in the 10th round.
Bute, a 31-year-old Romanian-born fighter based in Montreal, stopped the Ulsterman with an uppercut to the chin after 2 minutes, 4 seconds of the 10th round, improving to 28-0 with his 23rd stoppage inside the distance.
Magee, a 35-year-old former -European super middleweight champion, fell to 34-4 with one draw and saw his 10-fight unbeaten run snapped. Bute landed a powerful right hook to the chest in the sixth round that sent Magee to the canvas and sent a left hook to the challenger’s chest in the closing seconds of the seventh round to crumple him to his knees.
“After the fourth round, I realized the body shots were working,” Bute said. “My trainer said go to the body and that’s what I did.”
Magee attacked in flailing fashion in the eighth round, trying to stay with the champion, but Bute’s blow to the head in the 10th sent Magee to the canvas on his knees again and referee Pete Podgorski stopped the fight.
In only his second fight against a fellow southpaw, Bute recorded his fifth knockout in a row and set the stage for a likely fight later this year against Danish star Mikkel Kessler, who was at ringside.
Kessler, the former WBA and WBC champion, dropped out of the Super Six Boxing Classic tournament last year because of an eye injury.
Bute was left out of the Super Six, but has since signed with the event’s telecaster sponsor and wants to fight the tournament’s eventual winner to decide an undisputed super middleweight champion.
England’s Carl Froch, 27-1 with 20 knockouts, will defend his WBC crown against Jamaican Glen Johnson, 51-14 with two drawn and 35 knockouts, in one of two May semi-finals.
The other semi-final pits undefeated WBA champion Andre Ward, an American who is 23-0 with 13 knockouts, against Germany’s Arthur Abraham, 32-2 with 26 knockouts.
Carlos Alcaraz on Monday powered into the French Open second round with a resounding win to start his title defense, while world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and three-time defending women’s champion Iga Swiatek also progressed at Roland Garros. Four-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz struck 31 winners in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri and is to face Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan in round two. Alcaraz is now on an eight-match winning streak at the French Open and also took Olympic silver at Roland Garros last year, losing the final to Novak Djokovic. “The first round is never
TIGHT FINISH: Napoli only needed to do the same as or better than Inter, who won their game against Como 2-0 on the same day, leaving Napoli with a one-point lead The two players who Antonio Conte wanted more than any others secured Napoli their second Serie A title in three years on Friday. Scott McTominay scored with an acrobatic bicycle kick before halftime and Romelu Lukaku doubled the lead with a solo goal after the break in the decisive 2-0 home win over Cagliari. Conte became the first coach to win the Italian championship with three different teams. “Everyone contributed to this — but the coach most of all,” Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo said. “Napoli needed him to get back on top. He’s phenomenal.” Comparing it to his three Serie A titles won
The journey of Taiwan’s badminton mixed doubles duo Ye Hong-wei and Nicole Chan at the Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur came to an end in the semi-finals yesterday after they suffered a 2-0 loss to China’s Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping. Ye, 25, and Chan, 20, teamed up last year and are currently ranked No. 23 in the world. The Taiwanese shuttlers took on China’s second seeds in the mixed doubles event, but proved no match for Feng and Huang, losing the match 10-21, 7-21. In the first half of the first game, the pairings were neck and neck at 6-7 until Ye
SSC Napoli coach Antonio Conte has dragged the team back from disaster and restored them to the top of Italian Serie A, but his future at the Scudetto winners is in doubt even after a triumphant season. The fiery 55-year-old has exceeded preseason expectations and bolstered his reputation as a serial winner by guiding Napoli to their fourth Scudetto, and second in three seasons. However, he might well be on his way in the summer after just one season at the helm as his charged relationship with Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has simmered throughout the campaign. Conte has said
RSS