BOXING NEWS - Boxing from behind his right jab, South Africa’s Kevin Lerena retained the IBO cruiserweight belt with a hard-earned unanimous 12-round points decision over Dmytro Kucher from the Ukraine, at Emperors Palace near Kempton Park on Saturday night.
Judges Eddie Pappoe (Ghana), and Jerome Lades (France) both scored it 119-109 and judge Olena Pobyvailo (Belgium) had it 117-111.
Even though the scores were wide in favour of the southpaw Lerena (90.20 kg), this was not a true reflection of the fight as a badly marked up champion had to work hard for his victory.
There was very little action in the first round as both fighters were tentative with no scoring punches landed.
However, through rounds two to four Lerena picked up the pace, scoring with stinging right and lefts to the head.
In the third round Lerena was cut over the right eye, which was ruled a head-butt by referee Tony Nyangiwe of South Africa.
However, this was not a factor as the cut was well controlled by his corner.
Lerena’s nose was bloodied in the fourth round and bled throughout the fight, which proved that the rather mechanical Kucher was scoring with his left jab, even though they appeared to have little power from ringside.
The champion was in control through the first 10 rounds, but as he tired the taller Kucher came back to possibly shade the last two rounds.
Lerena improved his record to 20-1; 9 and Kucher’s record dropped to 24-3; 18.
All credit to Lerena for a fine performance, but Kucher, who is listed at number 16 by the IBO and was having his first fight since November 2016, proved to be a big disappointment.
