Mike Perez, left, from Cuba, takes a right to the head from Carlos Takam, from Cameroon, during their heavyweight bout on Saturday, January 18, 2014 in Montreal. The bout ended with a majority draw.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
January 18, 2014 - 8:30 PM
MONTREAL - Heavyweights Mike Perez and Carlos Takam fought to a 10-round majority draw as the Bell Centre crowd of 20,479 booed the inactivity in the ring on Saturday night.
The bout was on the undercard of the Lucian-Bute-Jean Pascal main event later Saturday.
Perez (20-0-1) and Takam (28-1-1) spent most of the bout with their heads locked together, trading short range blows to the head and body. The southpaw Perez suffered a cut from a headbutt in the third round that hampered his performance.
The Frenchman Takam's best moment was late in the sixth when he rocked Perez with a right.
Ringside judges scored it 96-94, 95-95 and 95-95.
Perez, a Cuban living in Ireland, had Mago written on his trunks in honour of Russian Magomed Abdusalamov, whose career he ended with a 10-round victory on Nov. 2 in New York. Abdusalamov spent a month after the bout in an enduced coma and remains in a rehab centre unable to walk or talk.
Eleider Alvarez (14-0) of Montreal was supposed to be in the co-feature against veteran Thomas Oosthuisen, but the South African pulled out with an injury.
His replacement, Ottawa's Andrew Gardiner (10-1), put on a gutsy show, winning some of the middle rounds, until he was stung at the end of the eighth and the gifted Colombian took back control. Alvarez got the decision 99-91, 96-93 and 97-93.
At the end, the crowd cheered Gardiner and booed Alvarez, who had refused to touch gloves with his opponent after the bout after something was said to him from Gardiner's corner.
Welterweight Mikael Zewski (23-0) of Trois-Rivieres, Que., had a tough opponent in Krzysztof Szot (18-10-1) in that the Polish fighter had never been stopped or even knocked down. This time, Szot went down in the fifth and twice more in the seventh before the ref stopped the bout.
Light middleweight Yves Ulysse (1-0) of Montreal showed his speed and attacking style as he won his pro debut by stopping Vango Tsirimokos (6-4) of Belgium in four rounds.
Bantamweight Sebastien Gauthier (22-4-1) of St-Jerome, Que., battled to a majority draw with Javier Franco (20-11-3) of Mexico.
Montreal-based Russian light heavyweight Artur Beterbiev (4-0) stopped French southpaw Gabriel Lecrosnier (16-26-3) in four rounds, and Colombian heavyweight Oscar Rivas (13-0) stopped lefty Shawn Cox of Trinidad (16-5) in three.
Notes _ Lightweight Tony Luis (17-2) of Cornwall, Ont., was knocked down in the first round and went on to lose a 10-round unanimous decision to Ivan Redkach (16-0) of Ukraine on Friday night in Memphis. Scores were 99-90, 97-92 and 97-93. "I thought it was a much, much closer fight," said Luis.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014