LAS VEGAS, NV — If you watched last night’s WBA lightweight title match between Richar Abril and Sharif Bogere, you’d think that clinches and head butts were legal. That was the only constant during this unaesthetically pleasing fight, but Abril was the fighter who landed the cleaner shots and took the deserved unanimous decision.
Bogere’s strategy was just to barrel in with sloppy pressure and wild punching. Bogere repeatedly lead with his head, causing cuts above both of Abril’s eyes, and flailing away with his shots. Abril started off very passive and not using his jab which let Bogere maul him.
When referee Russell Mora docked Abril a point for holding in the eighth, Abril, picked up his offense and became the boss in the clinches. Using his left hand as a stiff arm, the champion held Bogere’s face in the place and crashed home right crosses. Fatigue also slowed Bogere’s pressure, allowing Abril’s reach to dominate the action at mid-range with jabs and straight rights.
Abril made it clear to Adrien Broner (who was in attendance), that he wants that unification match next. Whether the fans want it is another story. Broner’s next order of business should be against Ricky Burns if he defeats Miguel Vazquez. However, if Vazquez wins than it’s a “pick your poison” regarding the awkward and spoiler tactics between Abril’s holding and Vazquez’s running.
Broner just might elect to move up rather than face those two.
On the undercard, Gary Russell Jr. looked on the way to a stoppage win before hurting his left hand midway through against Vyacheslav Gusev. Russell had dropped Gusev with a right hook but with only one hand, he opted to play it safe and turned the bout into an easy sparring session.
Russell is highly talented but he’s literally fought nobody. As much as we’ve gotten on Broner for his level of competition compared to his bouts, he at least has a very good fighter in Daniel Ponce de Leon already on his resume. Anything other than a push for Top 10 fighters for the rest of the year is a waste of time. Russell called out Juan Manuel Lopez in his post-fight interview, but that bout is not feasible with JuanMa being Top Rank and Russell being under Al Haymon/Golden Boy.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 
bogere is one cheating cunt, cant believe ref gave abril the point deduction first… though like pauly said it did abril a favor really, he kicked him into gear…
russell jr impressed me, not sure if ive seen him fight before, shame about his hands, not sure how far he will go with them if they keeping giving him trouble…