By Alexey Sukachev
France - He could easily have been 46-0 at this point of his career but Frenchman Cedric Vitu is 44-2, with 18 KOs, which is surely not a bad record as well. Another win secured tonight as the French fighter successfully retained his EBU light middleweight title with a dominant stoppage of Spanish veteran Ruben Varon Fernandez (now 43-9, with 20 KOs). The end came late in round four.
Vitu acquired his belt last June with a stoppage win over Orlando Fiordigiglio and defended it once - against Varon's countryman Roberto Santos on a close majority nod. This time nothing was close at all. Vitu took a methodical approach, feeling out his opponent in the first couple of rounds, while allowing the 36-year old Spaniard to look aggressive. He was under full control however - a long-shot fighter, who challenged (and lost to) then-WBO middleweight champion Felix Sturm more than twelve years ago.
Varon, a shadow of his former self, who has lost recently not only to Firodigigilio but also to 5-29 Rafael Chiruta (on a second-round TKO), was slow and rusty. He wilted after occasional bombs, thrown at him by Vitu, marking an inevitable end to come along soon. And it came at the end of the fourth, after Vitu cornered Varon and unleashed a series of wild blows, which crushed the Spaniard to his knees. Varon was up at the count of eight but was too hurt to let it go on.
Vitu, 30, lost just twice before - both on dubious majority and split decisions to well-established fighters in Sergey Rabchenko and Hamlet Petrosyan.
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Former two-time interim middleweight champion Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam (32-2, 18 KOs) came back to the ring for the first time since his loss to David Lemieux last June to outpunch and outbox his opponent Patrick Mendy (16-10-1, 1 KO) over eight dominating rounds. N'jikam kept his opponent at the end of his lanky jab and added power shots when needed. Durable Mendy loast via wide scores: 80-71 and 79-72 (twice) - for the French contender, who is rated #6 by the IBF, #8 by the WBC and #13 by the WBO. He is also TBRB #8 rated middleweight.
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In a mild upset, stagnating light heavyweight Hakim Zoulikha (22-8, 10 KOs) interrupted his four-fight losing series with a surprising eight-round unanimous decision over Hugo Kasperski (26-7-1, 19 KOs) in a knockdown-filled contest. Scores were: 77-72, 77-73 and 76-73 - all for Zoulikha. Kasperski last fought and lost for the European 175lb title.
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Super lightweight Yazid Amghar improved his record to 14-0, with 4 KOs, after a classy unanimous decision over fellow countryman Jean Moraiti (11-9-4). Scores were: 79-73, 79-73 and 78-72 - for Amghar
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