Pound-for-pound star defends title at Madison Square GardenTeofimo Lopez, Ireland’s Michael Conlan feature on undercard Tweet Bryan at @BryanAGraham or email him 3.03am GMT
Conlan improves to 13 wins in as many professional fights with a unanimous-decision win over Vladimir Nikitin. The ringside judges’ scores of 98-92, 99-91 and 100-90 (!) are laughable, but this was a breakthrough performance of sorts by Conlan, who showed the finishing kick of a seasoned pro in the ninth and 10th rounds in beating back a fierce rally by Nikitin, who came on so strong in the middle act. 2.52am GMT
Conlan’s revenge bid has gotten a bit hairy in the later stages. A crowd-pleasing eighth round descended into the Irishman and Niktin simply trading leather in the center of the ring. Conlan got it back on the rails a bit in the ninth, winning a cagier round on superior body work and taking an 86-85 edge on the Guardian’s card. And now Conlan appears to have done enough in the crowd-pleasing 10th to finish the task. We’ll see if the judges agree.