By Luke Furman
Before a crowd of of 4,224 at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Andrzej Fonfara (23-2, 13KOs) captured the IBO light heavyweight title with a seventh-round technical knockout of Tommy Karpency (21-4-1, 14KOs). The fight started fast, with Fonfara scoring two rapid knockdowns in the first round. Karpency came back and started winning a few rounds to make things close.
Karpency went for broke in the seventh round, but he may have suffered some sort of injury. When the two boxer got tangled up, Fonfara threw him to the mat. Karpency got up and told the referee he didn't want to continue and the fight was waved off at 57 seconds of the round.
After the fight was over, Karpency claimed that he injured his right shoulder during the fall and couldn't lift his arm. But other sources report that Karpency felt sick in the corner and was trying to quit before the start of the seventh. Referee Pete Podgorski said he asked Karpency twice if he wanted to continued and both times the boxer said "no."
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.
