Kubrat Pulev stands on the verge of finally challenging Anthony Joshua following a seventh-round stoppage of Bogdan Dinu in California.
The tough Bulgarian recovered from a bad cut to see off the Romanian, as expected. Pulev, who is IBF mandatory stipulation, should now be ordered to face Joshua later this year.
Joshua must first come through Jarrell Miller on June 1st in New York.
Speaking after the fight, Pulev said the gash suffered was too hampering to his performance at The Hangar.
“This is just part of being in a fight. The cut was not such a big problem. Sometimes blood makes me very hungry”, said Pulev.
“I was very well prepared. I was ready for anything. At this moment I feel I can do anything inside the ring. I showed very good boxing skills.
“I also showed that I have good punching power and a good strategy,” he added.
Kubrat Pulev wanted to send a resounding message to the big names of the heavyweight division, and he did so by scoring an emphatic knockout victory in front of a sold-out crowd at The Hangar.
After recovering from a flurry of punches that caused a dangerous cut on his left eyebrow in the fourth episode, the Bulgarian contender blasted Bogdan Dinu by technical knockout at 2:40 of the seventh round. – Top Rank
MAGDALENO
In his featherweight debut, former world champion Jessie Magdaleno returned to the winning route by scoring a unanimous decision victory over former world titleholder Rico Ramos to capture the WBC USNBC Featherweight title.
This was Magdaleno’s first fight since losing his WBO super bantamweight world title in April of 2018 against Isaac Dogboe. – Top Rank
Magdaleno paid dues to Ramos after his victory.
“I came back from a long layoff and felt great against a tough opponent and a former world champion”, said Magdaleno.
“Ramos is a great fighter, he was a former world champion for a reason, but tonight only one of us could come out victorious, and that was me.
“Now I’m going to sit down with my team, go back to the drawing board, and see what I have to keep working on to become a world champion once again,” he concluded.
Also on the bill, South African former IBO welterweight champion Chris Van Heerden made an emotional return to action.
Just weeks after the murder of his father, Van Heerden saw off Mahonry Montes to improve to 27-2-1.
Rounding off the night, Pulev’s brother Tervel kept his undefeated run going with a points win. Pulev is now 13-0.
Results:
• Top 140-pound contender Maxim Dadashev (13-0, 11 KOs) scored a spectacular technical knockout victory against Ricky Sismundo (35-13-3, 17 KOs) at 2:30 of the fourth round.
• South African welterweight contender Chris Van Heerden (27-2-1, 12 KOs) defeated Mahonry Montes (35-9-1, 24 KOs) via technical unanimous decision after an accidental clash of heads forced the referee to stop the fight at 1:44 of the sixth round.
• Unbeaten Mexican contender Erick De León (19-0-1, 11 KOs) recovered from a flash knockdown in the fifth round to score a seventh-round technical knockout victory against Jose Luis Gallegos (16-6, 12 KOs) in an eight-round junior lightweight fight.
• Undefeated prospect Tervel Pulev (13-0, 11 KOs), brother of heavyweight contender Kubrat Pulev, scored a unanimous decision victory against Mitch Williams (16-8-3) in a six-round cruiserweight fight.
• Javier Molina (19-2, 8 KOs) notched a unanimous decision victory against Abdiel Ramirez (24-4-1, 22 KOs) in an eight-round super lightweight battle.
• Middleweight prospect David Kaminsky improved to 4-0 with a unanimous decision over Estevan Payan (1-7-1, 1 KO). All three judges scored the four-rounder 40-36.
