Saturday 22 June 2013

Sakio Bika v Marco Antonio Periban

Over the past few years the Super Middleweight division has been on of the standout weight classes. Sadly politics has once again left it's mark on he sport as Andre Ward, the standout fighter in the division, was recently stripped of his WBC title.

To fill the void left by the WBC's decision to strip Ward we had a bout between 3-time former title challenger Sakio Bika and the unbeaten Mexican Marco Antonio Periban.

The bout started slowly with Periban just doing enough to claim the opening few rounds. Neither man looked good and the action wasn't great as the crowd started to boo.

In the middle rounds Bika started to charge back and out work Periban who seemed to decide that his best option was dance on the outside and throw next to nothing. The strange tactic of Periban's seemed to see him just giving rounds away with the flat out negativity.

It wasn't until round 8 that we eventually had some fireworks. A clash of heads lead to Periban being taken over to the ringside Dr. Immediately after the Dr said he was fine the two men started to land bombs for fun, though the bell unfortunately cut the excitement short.

Going in to the final 4 rounds it was still finely in the balance and either man had a great chance to claim a decision.

Round 9 seemed to show the best boxing of the bout with Periban showing some lovely class but he couldn't keep it up and and Bika did just enough to claim the following 2 rounds and take a slim lead in the final round.

It was in round 12 that the action and excitement picked up as both men went for it. They were both aware the fight was close and both seemed to know that a knockdown would win the bout for them. This saw both men leaving their jaws on the line and unloading on each other in what was genuinely fun to watch action despite the fact both men looked technically awful.

The close nature of the bout left, as many would expect, a tight decision though one that just favoured Bika by scores of 116-112, 115-113 and 114-114 to claim a majority decision.

This loss sees Periban falling to 20-1 (13) whilst Bika improves to 32-5-2 (21) and claims a world title in his 4th attempt. I'd be very shocked if he kept the belt for long.

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