Abdullah Mason came through a firefight to snare the vacant WBO lightweight title.
The Cleveland youngster, 21, battled through 12 hard-fought rounds with England’s Sam Noakes in a fight of the year contender to improve to 20-0 (17 KOs) in Saudi Arabia.
Afterwards, Mason told Boxing Social: “It feels great, definitely a great fight, I went the distance and it was a tough fight for it. He was definitely a tough opponent, he was what I expected, durable coming forward and trying to walk through everything, so we got the job done.”
It was the first time Mason had to go the distance in nine fights, a run that saw him stop everyone since having to go six rounds against Colombia’s Cesar Villarraga in 2023.
In defeating Noakes, Mason became boxing’s youngest current beltholder.
“I fought his fight, me sitting there, I tried to force it and if I let him come to me, I would have been able to catch him with cleaner stuff and catch him coming in, but we got the job done,” Mason added.
“I’m getting a lot of experience, next fight we’re going to come out even better and better after that."
