Impressive, explosive Adam Azim makes light work of Sergey Lipinets

LONDON – Adam Azim made his finest statement yet as a professional fighter by stopping the durable Sergey Lipinets in nine rounds.

The Kazakh had only been beaten inside the distance once, by Jaron “Boots” Ennis at welterweight, but in his natural junior-welterweight division lost every round of an increasingly one-sided fight until needing to be rescued in the ninth round.

Azim, 22 and the former European champion, repeatedly landed concussive right uppercuts on his resilient opponent, and another succession forced the referee Steve Gray to intervene after 33 seconds of the ninth at Wembley Arena.

On the occasion of Azim’s 13th fight, the 35-year-old Lipinets – a former world champion at 10st and also a veteran of a date with Mikey Garcia – was identified as the opponent required to test a fighter increasingly recognized as one of the most promising in Britain. 

Lipinets landed a left hook in the first round but the composed Azim fought with admirable maturity and remained relaxed behind the speed of his jab, before gradually responding with a straight right hand and a left around Lipinets’ high guard.

It was in the second round when he timed, to near-perfection, the first of his hurtful right uppercuts, and after he did so his speed of foot took him out of range. Another right uppercut followed and was complemented by a counter left as Lipinets threw a jab. Successive lefts to the body then provided a further sign of his growing momentum and dominance.

A right-left combination stung Lipinets at the start of the third, at which point Lipinets tried, and failed, to respond. Another right uppercut then stiffened the Kazakh’s legs, and after another attack to the body, a counter left – thrown as Lipinets landed a left of his own – dropped him. 

When Lipinets fell, Barry McGuigan, Azim’s manager, and Amir Khan, his friend, rose to their feet at ringside to shout instructions. If perhaps his finest exhibition of boxing was one symbol of his considerable potential, the sight of two of Britain’s finest retired fighters cheering him on was another; that he remained composed to resist forcing the stoppage then provided further cause for encouragement. 

Another right uppercut and straight right followed in the fourth when Azim’s feet then admirably again took him beyond Lipinets’ reach. He then threw an authoritative jab but was deducted a point by Gray for a low blow.

For all of Lipinets’ ambition and toughness, a sign of his decline existed in first a brief loss of balance, and thereafter in how one-dimensional and flat-footed Azim made him appear. Both of Lipinets’ eyes were swelling up, but after another one-sided sixth round, he remained upright – unlike Azim had previously predicted. 

Perhaps most encouragingly for Azim’s trainer Shane McGuigan was the extent to which his most exciting fighter was repeatedly excelling – and perhaps for the first time – on the inside. Another low blow then led to another one-point deduction in the seventh, and Azim responded by fighting with increased urgency. 

A straight right towards the start of the eighth round was followed by another right uppercut, further rights to the body, and three successive right hands inside. Lipinets’ face was increasingly beaten and bloodied, and two more right uppercuts, another right hook and another right uppercut prompted questions surrounding whether he should fight on.

Gray visited Lipinets corner to speak to them at the conclusion of the eighth, making it even less of a surprise in the ninth when the stoppage followed. Lipinets’ body language told the tale of a beaten fighter, and after he committed to the ninth round, right successive right uppercuts and another that was even more explosive and snapped his head back gave Gray little choice but to intervene.