Result: Nathan Cleverly Outpoints Robin Krasniqi; Chisora defeats Avila

By Jeff Sorby - 04/21/2013 - Comments

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In a fight that was supposed to be a competitive one, WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (26-0, 12 KO’s) totally dominated challenger Robin Krasniqi (39-3, 15 KO’s) in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision in front of a packed Wembley Arena in Wembley, London, UK. Cleverly took some monstrous shots from Krasniqi in rounds 6, 7 and the 8th rounds, but got the better of him with a high work rate.

The judges scored the fight 120-108, 119-109, and 120-108. Krasniqi showed excellent power throughout but he wasn’t able to keep up with the constant output from Cleverly. There was also a size difference between the two of them. Cleverly looked like a cruiserweight after rehydrating for the fight, while Krasniqi just looked like he was at the same weight he did for the weigh-in. Being much bigger than Krasniqi definitely gave Cleverly a huge advantage in the fight because he was able to absorb the big shots from Krasnqi without getting shock up.

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Fighting for the first time since last July, heavyweight Dereck Chisora (16-4, 9 KO’s) defeated Hector Alfredo Avila (20-13-1, 13 KO’s) by a 9th round TKO. Chisora fought without much energy or enthusiasm. It looked like he was just treating the fight like a sparring session and was carrying Avila to get rounds in. If that’s what he was doing then it worked because Avila hung around until the 9th when the fight was stopped after he fell down from a barrage of punches from Chisora. The referee looked like he’d seen enough of the one-sided fight because Avila was still able to fight, but the referee halted the fight anyway.

Chisora’s promoter Frank Warren said after the fight that Chisora will be back in the ring in June.

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Former WBO featherweight champion Scott Harrison (27-3-2, 15 KO’s) was defeated by the younger 26-year-old lightweight Liam Walsh (14-0, 10 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision. Neither of these were impressive compared to some of the other fighters in the division, but Walsh was a little bit better. The judges scored the fight 98-92, 97-93 and 97-93. I had Walsh winning by a couple of rounds. He really lacks power and it was hard to give him a lot of rounds because he was getting hit much harder than what he was throwing back.

It’s going to be difficult for Walsh to find a place for himself at the world level because he doesn’t match up with the likes of Ricky Burns, Antonio DeMarco, Richard Abril and Miguel Vazquez.

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Other boxing action on the card:

Paul Butler TKO 5 Yaqub Kareem

John Thain pts 8 Ryan Toms
Joe Murray pts 8 Dai Davies
Gary Corcoran pts 6 Mark McKray
Matty Fagan pts 4 Kristian Laight
Enzo Maccarinelli TKO 6 Carl Wild