Boxing
Nigeria’s Efe Ajagba outpoints Stephan Shaw for unanimous decision
Efe Ajagba fared better against an unbeaten boxer-puncher early Sunday morning in Nigeria (but Saturday night in the US) than the last time he fought one.
Two fights after his one-sided, unanimous-decision defeat to Frank Sanchez, Ajagba won what mostly amounted to a jabbing contest against previously undefeated Stephan Shaw by unanimous decision. Nigeria’s Ajagba was the aggressor for almost all 10 rounds, whereas Shaw seemed reluctant to engage with the hard-hitting heavyweight contender in a main event ESPN broadcast from Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York.
Judges Eric Marlinski, John McKaie and Don Trella scored their uneventful encounter identically, 96-94 for Ajagba.
“I went back to the corner and they told me to let my hands go, keep throwing punches, my jab,” Ajagba said. “I controlled the fight, so that’s how I won the fight.”
According to CompuBox, Ajagba landed 33 more punches overall than Shaw (111-of-430 to 78-of-341). CompuBox credited Ajagba for landing more jabs (90-of-350 to 48-of-237) and Shaw for landing more power punches (30-of-104 to 21-of-80).
“He tried to land the big shots,” Ajagba said. “I watched him to see what he was going to do. He kept throwing the jab, using the jab more.”
Ajagba (17-1, 13 KOs), a 2016 Olympian, won a second straight fight since Sanchez beat him. Cuba’s Sanchez (21-0, 14 KOs) dropped Ajagba in the seventh round and comfortably out-pointed him on all three scorecards in a 10-rounder that was part of the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder pay-per-view undercard in October 2021 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Ajagba underwent surgery on both elbows following his loss to Sanchez. Healthier and more confident, he promised he would box better against Shaw than he did versus Sanchez.
St. Louis’ Shaw, meanwhile, was unable to capitalize on the biggest opportunity of his nine-year professional career.
Without hesitation, Shaw (18-1, 13 KOs, 1 NC) took this fight against Ajagba on less than one month’s notice. Ajagba was supposed to fight Colombian contender Oscar Rivas (28-1, 19 KOs), but Rivas suffered a detached retina while training last month.
Shaw was already training to battle Italian prospect Guido Vianello (10-1-1, 9 KOs), who was stopped due to a cut by Jonnie Rice (16-6-1, 11 KOs) in the seventh round of ESPN’s co-feature Saturday night.
By the time the 10th round of the main event began, it seemed clear that Ajagba and Shaw would go the distance.
Ajagba’s right hand knocked Shaw backward with just over a minute remaining in the 10th and final round.
Ajagba’s right hand backed Shaw into the ropes with 1:25 to go in the 10th round.
Shaw lunged forward and landed a left hook with just under 20 seconds to go in the ninth round. Just before the ninth round ended, Shaw landed a right hand from long range.
Shaw snuck in a left hook with just under 30 seconds on the clock in the eighth round.
Ajagba’s left landed with about 1:15 to go in the eighth round. Shaw’s power jab landed a little less than 20 seconds into the eighth round.
Shaw connected with a right hand with 1:15 to go in the seventh round. They mostly continued to trade jabs in the seventh round.
A power jab by Ajagba backed Shaw into the ropes 40 seconds into the sixth round. Shortly thereafter, Shaw landed a left hook while they were in the center of the ring.
Shaw was more aggressive at times in the fifth round, yet he still fought mostly off his back foot and avoided Ajagba’s power.
A sweeping left hook by Shaw connected with just over 35 seconds remaining in the fourth round. A right-left combination by Ajagba connected a minute into the fourth round.
Ajagba avoided Shaw’s right hand and quickly came back to land a right hand of his own with 1:35 to go in the third round.
Ajagba and Shaw slipped power punches in the second round, when they again focused mostly on pumping their jabs.
Ajagba and Shaw traded stiff jabs with just over 15 seconds to go in the first round. Otherwise, neither fighter landed consequential punches in the opening three minutes.
Tyson Fury wants to fight Anthony Joshua in a long-awaited clash of British former heavyweight world champions if he wins his comeback against Canada-based Russian Arslanbek Makhmudov in London on Saturday.
Fury, 37, has come out of retirement for the fifth time in his career to get back into the ring at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium and is looking well beyond the weekend.
“I’ve got Arslanbek Makhmudov to think of on Saturday night, but all going well (Joshua is) the fight I want next,” he told BBC radio on Wednesday.
“I know he just had his fight with Jake Paul, whatever… a fight’s a fight, really. So yeah, I’ll be ready for that straight away after this.”
Joshua, 36, last fought in December when he dealt American Jake Paul a reality check with a savage sixth round knockout in Miami.
A few days after that, the former WBA, IBF and WBO champion was taken to hospital in Nigeria following a car accident that killed two close friends.
American former WBC world champion Deontay Wilder has also called out Joshua for a long-awaited matchup after beating Briton Derek Chisora on a split-decision last Saturday.
Fury, who has not fought since losing to Ukraine’s reigning world champion Oleksandr Usyk in December 2024, dismissed the idea of that happening.
“I’ve never seen two men slide as much as these two,” he said of the Wilder v Chisora bout. “They look like a couple of club fighters from a white-collar match in a local leisure centre. It was sad for me to watch.”
-Reuters
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Former world champion Deontay Wilder sent Derek Chisora into retirement by edging their engaging yet chaotic heavyweight fight in London, United Kingdom.
The boxers, aged 40 and 42 respectively, threw hopeful knockout punches and barely jabbed. Both slipped and fell to the canvas frequently during the bout at the O2 Arena on Saturday.
Wilder got the only knockdown in the eighth round, sending Chisora through the ropes, but the American was deducted a point in the same round for pushing. Chisora was rattled, but Wilder did not press his advantage.
Wilder dominated the early rounds, and Chisora rallied late. The judges were split in their scoring: Wilder received scores of 115-111 and 115-113, and the third picked Chisora by 115-112
Wilder said the fight was fun and suggested he didn’t want to knock out Chisora.
“Tonight, I looked out for him. I want him to live for his kids,” he told broadcaster DAZN. “It’s time for us to take care of each other.”
Chisora said in the build-up that the fight was to be his last, but the Londoner was reluctant to confirm it afterwards.
“I’m going to go home with the boss lady and see,” he told DAZN. “I’m going to go home and drop the kids, do the school run.”
It was the 50th fight for both in the professional ranks.
Wilder improved his record to 45-4-1. The WBC titleholder from 2015 to 2020 came to London having lost four of his last six fights.
Chisora’s record since 2007, when he turned pro a year before Wilder, dropped to 36-14. He lost his only two title shots against Vitali Klitschko in 2012 and Tyson Fury in 2022.
-The Associated Press
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Manny Pacquiao said he has signed a contract for a fight with Floyd Mayweather and that he would not get back into the ring with the American if it was an exhibition bout.
Mayweather, 49, and Pacquiao, 47 announced last month that they would meet at the Sphere in Las Vegas in September, with the bout streaming globally on Netflix.
However, Mayweather told Vegas Sports Today last week that it would be an exhibition bout, not a real fight, and that a venue had yet to be decided.
“If that’s what he is feeling but he signed for a real match. The contract that we signed is for a real fight,” Pacquiao told local media on Thursday. “He has to remember that.”
Mayweather, who holds a perfect 50-0 record with 27 knockouts, defeated Pacquiao in a 2015 encounter dubbed the “Fight of the Century”.
Jas Mathur, CEO of Manny Pacquiao Promotions and a producer for the event, said the agreement was for a fight.
“No one in these last three months has brought up anything related to the venue or related to the fight not being a professional fight,” Mathur told ESPN.
“His team has had all the contracts. He signed all the contracts.”
Reuters has requested comment from Mayweather’s camp.
The 2015 bout between the boxers generated a record 4.6 million pay-per-view buys and a $72 million live gate at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
-Reuters
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