MONTREAL – After 11 undefeated years as a pro, France’s Laid Douadi was stung by “The Wasp” Dzmitry Asanau.
The unbeaten Asanau, 11-0 (5 KOs), scored the most emphatic victory of his career, knocking out Douadi at the end of the third round of a 10-round lightweight fight Thursday at Casino Montreal. The end came at the 3-minute mark after a left hook to the body put Douadi down for the count.
Asanau – a 2016 and 2021 Olympian who was born in Belarus, lives in Dubai and trains in Montreal – made the decision early on to box the southpaw Douadi on his right side, forcing him to circle to his left and into the direction of Asanau’s right hands, which he often doubled and tripled like a jab. Asanau’s aggression forced Douadi to fight more than he was comfortable with, and opened up the well-placed left hook to the body that scored the knockdown in Round 2.
Asanau continued to pressure his opponent in the third, sneaking in body shots with both hands, which he set up by moving deftly with his upper body and feet. Another left hook to the body near the end of the third put Asanau down for the count.
The 32-year-old Douadi, 27-1-1 (3 KOs), had turned pro in 2014 but had been fighting lesser opposition in recent years, with his past four fights scheduled for either six or eight rounds.
Asanau is trained by Samuel Décarie-Drolet and has a family, a wife and young son, in Dubai.
The Asanau-Douadi fight was the co-main event of a card promoted by Eye of the Tiger, which is headlined by the IBF super middleweight title eliminator between Osleys Iglesias and Vladimir Shishkin.
Facing a late replacement opponent, Jhon Orobio wasn’t interested in making his bout against Ivan Basurto Monroy into more than it needed to be.
The power-punching Colombian stopped the tough but overmatched Basurto in the third round of a scheduled eight-round junior welterweight fight. Orobio scored two knockdowns in the first round and then battered Basurto, who stepped in for the injured South African Xolisani Ndongeni on less than a week’s notice, until the fight was stopped at the 1-minute, 38-second mark.
After an aggressive start, Orobio landed a right hand to the midsection that aired Basurto out, sending him into the ropes. Orobio ran to the opposite corner in anticipation of a count being administered, but when one wasn’t forthcoming, he threw a left hook to the head and properly deposited him to the canvas. Basurto hit the canvas once more in the round, this time the product of a less-clear left hook, but it was clear that even partial lands were doing critical damage.
To Basurto’s credit, the 28-year-old from Queretaro, Mexico, made it through the first round, and even attempted to land a few shots of his own to earn some respect. Although his valor may have earned him some respect from the observers at ringside, it did little to slow down the robust offensive machine in front of him.
An uppercut-right hook-uppercut combo near the end of the second round again wobbled Basurto, but he shook his head resolutely to dismiss the idea that he was ready to go, though he was still taking punches. The end came after Orobio wobbled him once more along the ropes with a right hand to the temple.
Canadian prospect Avery Martin Duval scored his biggest win to date, a fifth-round knockout of Luis Campos Cortez in a 10-round lightweight fight, knocking him down three times in the fifth to score the stoppage win.
Duval, 14-0-1 (8 KOs), a native of Hawkesbury, Ontario who now lives and trains in Montreal, was in control from the outset, using his jab and counter uppercuts to keep Campos, 11-2 (7 KOs), at bay. Duval found the opening he was looking for in the fifth, when a right uppercut concealed the left hook to the body that scored the first knockdown.
Campos, who was fighting outside of his native Mexico for the first time, beat the count but could not recover, as he went down twice more in the round before the fight was ended at the 2-minute, 12-second mark.
“I called it earlier in the day, that I thought a body shot would get him out of there,” said Duval, who attributed his slow start to this being his first 10-round fight. He says Campos felt the power early, which is what kept him from being more aggressive.
“He would sometimes throw a big shot here and there, but he stayed out of the danger zone,” said Duval. “When I landed my jab, I would feel his nose and bones in my glove. So, for sure, he was tentative to come in and that’s why I think he wasn’t willing to push the fight forward and was trying to survive round by round, until I caught him with a clean shot.”
Duval says he is scheduled to return to the ring in December, possibly for a minor title.
Super middleweight prospect Moreno Fendero, 12-0 (10 KOs), stretched his knockout streak to six straight with a third-round stoppage of Scotland’s Boris Crighton, 13-7 (7 KOs). The France-raised Fendero, nicknamed “The Soldier” because of his experience as a member of the French military, put Crighton down twice in the third round, with a right hook freezing his opponent before the fight was waved off at the 2-minute, 49-second mark.
Kicking off the card, Olympic bronze medalist Wyatt Sanford improved his record to 4-0 (2 KOs) with a six-round shutout of durable Estonian Semjon Kamanin, who dropped to 5-4 (3 KOs). Sanford, a southpaw whose amateur pedigree includes a gold medal at 2023 Pan American Games, was content to pick off his aggressive opponent early on, using his right hook to keep his opponent turning, but he sat down more on his power shots in the second half of the fight, particularly with his uppercuts. A left cross to the midsection in Round 5 knocked out Kamanin’s mouthpiece, drawing a smile from the Estonian.
The win was Sanford’s second straight decision at six rounds. The 26-year-old from the small town of Kennetcook, Nova Scotia, said he plans to move down a division to lightweight for his next bout and will see how he feels before stepping up to eight rounds.
Sanford’s bronze medal at last year’s Paris Games was the first boxing medal for Canada since 1996.
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
