By Edward Chaykovsky
At Gimnasio Nacional in San Jose, Costa Rica, Brian Magee (35-4-1, 24KOs) bounced back from his loss to Lucian Bute, and won a twelve round unanimous decision over Jaime Barboza (17-5, 8KOs) to win the interim WBA super middleweight title. Magee outworked Barboza in almost every round. The television announcers never disclosed the actual scores that were announced to the live crowd.
The result of this fight creates what is ultimately going to become three WBA world champions in the super middleweight division. On the 26th of August, former WBO champion Karoly Balzsay will face Stanyslav Kashtanov for the vacant WBA "regular" super middleweight title. The WBA's "super" beltholder at 168, Andre Ward, is going to face WBC champ Carl Froch in a unification scheduled for October 29.
