BoxNation results: Rigondeaux, Flanagan retain world titles

Liam Williams TKO-11 Gary Corcoran

The British and Commonwealth junior middleweight title fight went on last in Cardiff, and was the best fight of the card, no surprise because it was the most well-matched fight of the card. The two fighters engaged in a scrappy grudge match, which saw a lot of headbutting and grappling, a bit of talking, and ultimately, an 11th round stoppage win for Williams (15-0-1, 10 KO), who retains both belts.

Williams had home field advantage in Wales and was the slight favorite, which he proved was earned by landing heavier, cleaner shots for much of the fight. When he was able to use his jab, he was very effective, but Corcoran (15-1, 6 KO) made him work for the victory, too, staying in the fight. BLH had it 97-92 for Williams at the time of the stoppage, so he was clearly ahead, but Corcoran wasn’t going away, until he was dropped early in the 11th, and then finished off shortly after.

Official time of the stoppage was 2:11 of round 11.

Guillermo Rigondeaux RTD-2 Jazza Dickens

Guillermo Rigondeaux has been known to have some boring fights, examples of class technical skill without much excitement, but this one was a really odd fight.

Dickens (22-2, 7 KO) was here to do the best he could. He was trying to bait Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KO) into throwing first, which, y’know, wasn’t really going to happen. The first round was quiet, Rigondeaux seeing what Dickens had. Early in the second, Rigondeaux landed a clean left hand. Dickens came back and landed a shot of his own. The fight was then quiet again for the rest of the round.

After the second round, though, the fight was stopped in the corner. Rigondeaux’s one clean punch broke Dickens’ jaw, is the word from the ring. It is kind of fluky to one-punch break someone’s jaw, no matter how big a puncher you are, and Rigondeaux, though he has power and great timing, is not a huge puncher anyway. But to have that be basically the only thing done, and it’s enough to win, and you managed to have a fight that was fairly boring in two rounds anyway, well, that is downright amazing. Frank Warren says he hopes to have Rigondeaux back by September.

Terry Flanagan UD-12 Mzonke Fana

Terry Flanagan retained his WBO lightweight title with an easy and frankly quite dull win over 42-year-old Mzonke Fana, dropping the South African twice and winning on scores of 120-106 across the board. BLH had it 118-108 for Flanagan (31-0, 12 KO).

It certainly wasn’t his best performance, and he clearly knew that, his body language expressing frustration during and after the bout. But he’s still got the belt, and he’s better than he showed here. Fana, who went down on flash knockdowns in the fourth and 12th rounds, falls to 38-10 (16 KO) in what was almost certainly his final world title chance.

Flanagan could face Dejan Zlaticanin (22-0, 15 KO) next, as promoter Frank Warren says they are working on that fight. Zlaticanin won the WBC belt on June 11.

Welterweight Bradley Skeete improved to 24-1 (11 KO) with a seventh round stoppage of Alexandre Lepelley (19-7-1, 4 KO), and middleweight Tommy Langford (17-0, 6 KO) remained unbeaten with a seventh round stoppage of Timo Laine (15-7, 4 KO).

Also picking up wins on the card were super flyweight Jamie Conlan, middleweight Alex Hughes, and junior middleweight Joe Pigford.