Osleys Iglesias needed less than five rounds to finish off Petro Ivanov and successfully defend a minor super middleweight title at the Montreal Casino in Canada on Thursday night.
Cuba’s Iglesias, 26, put up a splendid performance, knocking down the 28-year-old Ivanov, of Ukraine, in the fifth round with a two-punch combination. Although Ivanov got back to his feet, the referee appeared unimpressed with his body language and stopped the fight.
A dismayed Ivanov, 18-1-2 (13 KOs), wanted to continue the fight, but his trainers didn’t protest the referee’s call after witnessing the punishment their fighter had taken from Iglesias,13-0 (12 KOs), through the opening four-plus rounds.
The bout started well for Iglesias, who went straight at Ivanov at the sound of the opening bell, landing power shots to the face and body while Ivanov relied on his jab.
Iglesias troubled Ivanov with uppercuts in Round 2, and his jabs and left hooks further destabilized Ivanov, who failed to get his shots right. The third and fourth rounds were explosive for Iglesias, who concentrated on his combinations to keep Ivanov at bay. Ivanov, struggling to cope with his opponents’ power shots, clinched for much of the third round.
Ivanov tried going at Iglesias in the fourth round, but the Cuban retaliated with body shots. Iglesias continued landing troubling left hooks, which prevented Ivanov from throwing more punches.
In the fifth round, Ivanov’s decision to attack Iglesias failed, as he was caught with a combination that sent him to the canvas. The knockdown was enough for the referee to hand Iglesias a deserved TKO victory.
Meanwhile, super middleweight Steven Butler made easy work of Fernando Farias, stopping him in one round in the co-feature. Butler first recorded a knockdown with his jab, but Farias did not look hurt.
Moments later, Canada’s Butler, 35-5-1 (29 KOs), sent Farias, 12-3-3 (4 KOs), to the canvas again with a big right hand. While Farias, of Argentina, appeared to have beaten the mandatory count, he failed to respond to instructions from the referee.
Both fighters started the opening round setting up their offense with the jab, but Butler was the first to land a big shot. Butler, a two-time world title challenger, bounced back from a painful ninth-round stoppage loss to Patrice Volny five months ago.
On the undercard, Dzmitry Asanau, 9-0 (4 KOs), of Belarus, proved too strong for Argentina’s Matias Carlos Adrian Rueda, 38-3 (32 KOs), recording a fifth-round TKO win in their lightweight contest.
Colombia’s Jhon Orobio, 12-0 (11 KOs), unleashed a first-round stoppage over Jacopo Colli to end a scheduled eight-round junior welterweight fight. Also, Argentina’s super middleweight Marcos Karalitzky, 8-10-2 (2 KOs), took a lot of punishment from Wilkens Mathieu, of Canada, 12-0 (8 KOs), en route to a fourth-round TKO defeat.
Bernard Neequaye is a sports journalist with a specialty in boxing coverage. He wrote a boxing column titled “From The Ringside” in his native Ghana for years. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) at @BernardNeequaye, LinkedIn at Bernard Neequaye and through email at [email protected].
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