Russian boxer Dmitry Bivol overpowered Lenin Castillo with a dominating attack to retain his WBA light heavyweight belt on Saturday in Chicago.
Bivol cruised to a unanimous decision, winning almost every round and knocking the challenger down in the sixth round of a slow paced fight in front of a crowd of 9,073 at the Wintrust Arena.
He defended his title for the seventh time winning by scores of 120-107 and 119-108 twice.
In the final fight of the night, Oleksandr Usyk made his heavyweight division debut a successful one with a seventh round TKO victory over fill-in fighter Chazz Witherspoon.
Bivol had no problem with Castillo, using combination punches to the body and head to wear the challenger down and score a knockdown in the middle of the fight.
Bivol connected with a right hand to the chin that sent Castillo staggering backwards then smiling awkwardly as he hit the canvas in the middle of the sixth.
Castillo was able to continue and take the fight to the distance but he spent most of time on the defensive and wasn’t able to do much damage by counterpunching against Bivol.
“I saw his fights before. He is really good at counter attacking. All five rounds before that, I tried to land that punch,” Bivol said of the knockdown blow.
Bivol improved to 17-0 while Castillo dropped to 20-3-1 overall.
Bivol said he wants to fight another champion next.
“I kept my belt and I still have a chance to fight for my dream and get another title,” he said.
AFP
