Adam Azim defeats Aram Fanyan in super-lightweight clash by unanimous decision after 10 rounds; Jack Cullen knocks out Mark Heffron to become British & Commonwealth champ; Watch Liam Smith vs Chris Eubank Jr live on Sky Sports Box Office
Adam Azim had a dangerous puzzle to solve against Ukrainian super-lightweight Aram Fanyan.
Azim weathered threatening left hooks and a committed assault from Fanyan to take a unanimous decision win after 10 rounds.
Azim was returning to action after a frustrating pause to his previously rapid rise through the professional sport.
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In February Slough’s Azim went 10 rounds for the first time, despite dropping Santos Reyes. Azim suffered a hand injury and then had to postpone this fight with Fanyan after picking up a nasty infection in his knuckle.
Fanyan, a far more experienced pro than Azim, opened the fight committing to his left hook. Clearly he had identified a chink in Azim’s armour and he swept that lead hook round Azim’s guard consistently.
A swift right hand counter just grazed Fanyan high on the head but Azim didn’t quite get a read on him in the second round. In the third a left hook yet again made the Briton step back.
He targeted Azim’s chin with that shot and it sliced through, shaking the Slough man for a moment.
Azim needed to keep calm and composed. He found Fanyan with hard rights but the Ukrainian didn’t let that deter him from charging in up close on the inside.
He leapt at Azim with a brace of left hooks. But the Slough fighter shielded himself from those and looked to his right cross. Connecting with the back hand gave Fanyan pause.
In the seventh round Azim struck the Ukrainian harder and harder with that right cross. With Fanyan in a corner, he drilled him with a straight one-two and the back hand again forced the Ukrainian back a pace before the end of the round.
Azim hurt him in the eighth round. The crowd roared him on as the Briton lashed in punches. The right clocked the side of Fanyan’s head and Azim drove him across the ring into the ropes.
In the next round Azim snapped out a left hook and another right immediately crashed in after it. He whipped his lead hook round to keep Fanyan on the backfoot.
But even in the 10th and last round the Ukrainian swung for him with dangerous intent. Azim set up a cracking right cross to the chin which, for a split second, seemed to stun the Ukrainian. But Fanyan was too tough and too proud to falter and he went the distance.
Azim was a deserved winner, though the judges didn’t give much credit to Fanyan’s work, with their scores of 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92 all in the Briton’s favour.
Mark Heffron met Jack Cullen in an exciting local derby for the British and Commonwealth super-middleweight championships.
They opened up on one another early on. Cullen fired a long right down, Heffron led with a left hook, though neither made a breakthrough in the first round.
In the second however Cullen fired through a warning shot. Cullen worked his way out of the corner with a left hook followed by a right cross that forced Heffron to back off as his legs momentarily stuttered.
If he’d hinted he could hurt the champion then, he did so emphatically at the start of the third round.
A huge left hook upended Heffron. The force of the hit spat Heffron’s legs out from under him. The Oldham man tried to beat the referee’s count but collapsed a second time.
He was stopped at 2-43 of the third.
After a heavy loss to Diego Pacheco in March, it was a moment of triumph for Cullen.
“If I didn’t get the losses, I wouldn’t be here fighting for this. Boxing is my life, I’ve put everything into this fight,” he said.
“It’s unreal, just as a kid watching boxing with my dad, he’s who I fight for, we’ve not just watched it, we’ve won it.”
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