At the Cirque Jules Verne in Amiens, France, local favorite Christopher Sebire captured the vacant WBF World Light Welterweight title with a unanimous decision over former South American champion Martin Antonio “El Principito” Coggi from Argentina.
Coggi got off to the better start, but Sebire found his rhythm in round two and took control of most of the rounds from then on. Coggi had to work hard to snatch a round here and there, and after the final bell it seemed clear to most that the home-man had won a very good fight.
Judge Vincent Dupas (France) scored it 115-113, judge Philippe Wouters (Belgium) had it much wider at 117-111, and judge Jean-Marcel Nartz (Germany) voted right in between at 116-112. Referee in charge of the action was Christophe Hembert (France).
Fighting on a show promoted by Jerome Fouache, Sebire improved his professional record to 25-9-1 (9), while Coggi, son of former world champion Juan Martin Coggi, drops to 33-7-3 (16).
In Japans third-largest city Osaka, promoter Kenji Maki presented a well-attended WBF Asia Pacific double-header featuring local stars Yuki Ishizumi and Yuya Nakamura taking on tough and determined visitors from South Korea and Indonesia.
At Super Featherweight, Yuki Ishizumi, now 10-6-1 (2), beat South Korean Jae-Bong Jang, 15-5-1 (5), by split decision to win the vacant title after a brutal battle with plenty of back-and-forth action to entertain the mesmerized crowd.
Judges Malcolm Tunacao from The Philippines and Eiji Yakamura from Japan scored the fight 96-94 and 96-93 respectively for Ishizumi, while judge Kwon Joon Suk from South Korea saw it 97-95 in favor of Jang. Referee was Kazushi Nisyama.
Yuya Nakamura improved to 9-2 (5) by securing the vacant Super Flyweight version with a second-round stoppage of Afrizal Tamborezi, 12-6 (6), from Indonesia. Both fighters came out fast, and looked determined to get the other out of there as soon as possible.
Nakamura edged a lively first round, and in round two he floored Tamborezi three times with body-shots, the last one making it impossible for the Indonesian to recover as referee Kazushi Nisyama counted him out. Time of stoppage was 2:05.
Contesting the vacant WBF Eurasia Cruiserweight title, Switzerland-based Tefik “Hurricane” Bajrami stopped hard-punching Croatian Marino Goles in three rounds in front of a partisan crowd of more than 2000 spectators at the Pallati i Rinise in Pristina in his birth-country Kosovo.
After a close first stanza, Bajrami got the upper-hand in round two and started landing some clean and powerful shots. At the end of the second he hurt Goles badly with a good right hand, but the Croatian was saved by the bell and allowed to return to his corner.
However, in consultation with the ringside doctor Goles didn’t come out for round three, making Bajrami the winner by technical knockout at 0:01 of the round. The new WBF Eurasia Kingpin, a late-bloomer at 39 years of age, took his record to 11-1 (8), and send Goles back to Croatia with a 21-8 (19) ledger.
The fight was the main event of a card promoted by Bajrami.
