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Usyk beats Gbadiev to unify the cruiserweight division
LOS ANGELES, July 22 (Agencies): WBO Mexican middleweight champion Jaime Munguia remains undefeated with a unanimous victory over Englishman Liam Smith in a 12-round title fight Saturday night
Munguia, 21, improved to 30-0 with 25 knockouts by becoming the second boxer – with Canelo Alvarez – to beat Smith.
While Munguia did not hit Smith, he easily won the 154-pound bout by scores of 116-111, 119-110, and 119-108.
With about 40 seconds remaining in the sixth round, Munguia picked up a left hook on the side of the head that hit Smith down. He still hurt her three rounds later with a hook on her body. "I played very well, it was a tough fight," said Munguia. "I was looking for the knockout, I went for the knockout and I always put my heart in the fight like a real Mexican."
Former world champion Smith dropped to 26-2- 1 in total as the Liverpool native did not reclaim the title he lost to Alvarez 2016.
Smith, who was making his debut in Las Vegas, won the crown in 2015 with one stop seventh round of John Thompson.
While he was outclbaded on Saturday, he still fought until the end and even managed to land the final shot of the fight in front of a crowd of 2,400 at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas.
"He was a tough opponent," said Smith's Munguia. "We went to the decision, no problem, it is a learning experience."
On the undercard, Alberto Machado easily defeated challenger Rafael Mensah, winning 120-107 on all three scorecards. Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk unified the cruiserweight division by defeating Russian Murat Gbadiev by unanimous decision on Saturday.
Despite a confrontation with a hostile crowd in Moscow, Usyk controlled his fight to add Gbadiev's WBA and IBF titles to his own WBC and WBO.
Gbadiev fired some shots at the body when he broke into Usyk's penalty area, but he began to get tired and the Ukrainian dominated the final laps as Gbadiev swung wild mowers.
Usyk, former Olympic gold medalist all four headlines after only 15 professional fights, all that he won.
"Moscow, 2018. Bang! Papa is in the building," Usyk said.
Usyk added that he could switch to heavyweight to fight experienced British fighter Tony Bellow. "If he does not want to fall (to cruiserweight), I will happily go up to meet him," Usyk said. "I'm just going to eat extra pasta."
It was Usyk 's third fight in 10 months as part of the World Boxing Super Series, in which he also beat the German Marco Huck and the champion of the world. WBC era Mairis Briedis. Gbadiev's record dropped to 26-1 without a contest.
Usyk was born in Crimea and said that he was forced to leave the peninsula after Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Despite the tension between the two countries, Usyk and Gbadiev engaging warmly after the fight with wide smiles.
On the undercard, Cecilia Braekhus remained the undisputed champion of the welterweight welterweight after defeating the Russian Inna Sagaydakovskaya relatively inexperienced by unanimous decision.
The Norwegian, who won a world title in 2009, has a record of 34-0.
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