By Alexey Sukachev

Souleymane M'Baye's WBA interim title reign ended in a disappointing disaster at Jamaa El Fna in Morocco. The former WBA light welterweight titlist (now 39-4-1, 21 KOs) was winning up until the midway point of his latest defense against determined local contender Ismael El Massoudi (36-3, 14 KOs).

M'Baye clearly lost the championship rounds and was heading to a razor-thin decision in his favor on BoxingScene unofficial scorecard (114-113) - but then he crashed down in pain after a light jab by the Moroccan with just forty seconds remaining in the fight. M'Baye, cut over his left eye with blood streaming, injured his right knee badly and was counted out by referee Lahcen Oumghar. M'Baye was desprately trying to get up during the count but his twisted knee kept him down.

Otherwise, it was an even fight between two evenly matched opponents. Coming after a year of inactivity, M'Baye, 35, was rusty, while his busy opponent El Massoudi, 33, was too defensive.

The Frenchman took the first half of the battle with his punching precision and he also took the middle of the fight prevailing with his power over El Massoudi's workrate. However, the Moroccan gave his all in the closing rounds and gave his quickly fading opponent some rocky moments with his uppercuts. WBA #13 El Massoudi was also deducted a point in the tenth for headbutting.

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EBA cruiserweight titleholder Rachid El Hadak (23-8-1, 7 KOs) easily retained his version of European title with a one-sided drubbing of German trialhorse Rene Huebner (29-17-2, 15 KOs). El Hadak floored the German once but failed to stop him from surviving till the final bell because of his feather fists. Nevertheless, El Hadak's dominance was astounding, and it reflected clearly on all three judges' scorecards: 120-108 (Jose Manuel Garcia Reyes and Jean-Louis Legland) and 120-107 (Lahcen Oumghar).

Rachid El Hadak is ranked #7 by the WBA. Huebner was stopped by 2008 Olympic heavyweight gold medalist Rachim Chakhkiev in four rounds merely a year and three months ago.

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In the first fight of the biggest boxing event in the recent history of Morocco, which is currently being held at Jamaa El Fna square in Marrakech, former world-ranked flyweight and super flyweight Lee Haskins (22-2, 11 KOs) delivered one of his finest performances in a long-long time, flooring local (but France-based) prodigee Mohamed Boulegcha (16-6-2, 4 KOs) twice en route to a lopsided unanimous decision over twelve rounds.

Slightly bigger but less resilient bantamweight Boulegcha just hadn't anything to stop the awkward British southpaw, who was playful and powerful at the same time. Scores were 119-107 (Lahcen Oumghar and Juan Manuel Garcia Reyes) and 117-109 (Jose Ignacio Martinez) - all for "Playboy" Haskins, who also acquired Boulegcha's WBA I/C and IBF International bantamweight titles in the process. The French Moroccan was ranked #9 by the WBA coming into this fight.

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