By Francisco Salazar

Artem Dalakian broke down Gregorio Lebron Saturday night, dropping him four times en route to a sixth round knockout victory at the Parkovy Convention Center in Kiev, Ukraine.

With the win, Dalakian successfully defended his WBA World flyweight title.

The styles of Dalakian and Lebron were awkward that the action produced a lot of clenching. Lebron fell to the canvas several times during the fight from Dalakian pushing down on the back of his head.

When there was boxing, Dalakian was the superior fighter, outboxing Lebron during numerous exchanges.

Dalakian scored the first knockdown of the fight, landing a counter right hand that dropped Lebron with about a minute left in round two. Lebron was not visibly hurt from the knockdown, getting back up and fighting back.

Lebron attempted to close the distance, but very little of his wild punches connected as Dalakian kept his distance and made him miss.

Dalakian connected with a barrage of punches to open the sixth round, dropping Lebron to the canvas. Lebron was not visibly hurt, but was stunned by a right hand from Dalakian midway through the round. Dalakian followed that up with another right hand to the head, dropping Lebron a second time in the round. 

Towards the end of the round, Dalakian landed a right cross to the temple of Lebron, dropping him a third time in the round. Lebron easily beat the count, but the fight was waved off at 2:45.

Dalakian, who is originally from Azerbaijan and now resides in the Ukraine city of Dnipropetrovsk, improves to 18-0, 13 knockouts. He won the vacant WBA title on Feb. 24 with a unanimous decision win over Brian Viloria.

Dalakian made the first defense of his world title on June 17, stopping Thailand’s Sirichai Thaiyen in round eight.

The 36-year-old Lebron, who resides in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, drops to 21-5, 16 KOs.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing