On a bill that was supposed to be topped by Albert Ramirez versus Lerrone Richards, Mehmet Unal stepped up to claim victory in the main event at Casino de Montreal.
Ramirez was taken ill two nights before the card and so the bout between now 15-0 (13 KOs) Unal against 17-1 (9 KOs) Altin Zogaj was elevated, and Unal won in the ninth round.
Unal, the WBC’s No. 9 at 175lbs was born in Turkey and lives in Montreal. He is trained by Marc Ramsay.
In the co-main, two-time Belarusian Olympian Dzmitry Asanau, 12-0 (6 KOs) and boxing at lightweight, trained in Montreal by Samuel Décarie-Drolet, won after seven against Spain’s champion Carlos Ramos (18-4-1, 10 KOs) when the visitor’s corner intervened.
Scores were all over the place when 12-1 (8 KOs) Thomas Chabot won a split decision against New Brunswicker Dominic Babineau (13-3-1, 11 KOs).
Chabot won on two cards by 100-90, 99-91, with one card favoring Babineau by 96-94.
It was Chabot’s first time going 10 rounds and his featherweight debut, having dropped down from junior lightweight.
Canadian Olympic medalist from the Paris 2024 Games, Wyatt Sanford improved to 6-0 (2 KOs), with a six-round win at lightweight over Argentine Alexis Gabriel Camejo, 10-6-1 (1 KO).
Montreal light-heavyweight Keven Beausejour is now 2-0 (2 KOs) having stopped Czech Petr Strnad (4-4-2, 2 KOs), in Round 2. The Canadian prospect was making his local debut, having won his first professional bout in Mexico last December.
In the first bout of the night, at 154lbs, Longueuil’s Dante Tice Oliveira, 2-0 (1 KO) recorded the first knockout of his career stopping veteran Argentine Gonzalo Manriquez, 6-8-1, in the fourth and final round.
