MOSCOW, November 3 (R-Sport) – Russian heavyweight boxer Magomed Abdusalamov has suffered his first professional defeat, losing to Cuba’s Mike Perez on points.
In Saturday's night's bout in Madison Square Garden, New York City, the judges unanimously handed Abdusalamov’s WBC United States title to Perez, with two scoring it 97-92, and the other 95-94 after 10 rounds of boxing.
The defeat takes the 32-year-old Dagestani native to an 18-1 win-loss record, and also derails plans to take on WBC world champion Vitali Klitschko voiced by his co-promoter Stepan Lendel in April.
The fight was on the undercard of the WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin's title defense against Curtis Stevens. Golovkin sent the Panamanian-American boxer to the floor in the second round and dominated to such an extent that Stevens' trainer told referee to stop the fight at the end of round eight.
Golovkin, 31, wins his fourth bout of the year, moving to a 28-0 record on 25 KOs.
