Whitehall, NY – Shawn Miller won a unanimous ten-round decision over Yasin Rashid to capture the vacant World Boxing Federation (WBF) North American Light Heavyweight Title in front of an energetic crowd in Whitehall, NY on Saturday night.
The first round was a feeling out round by both fighters. Each landed a few hard shots, which carried into the second round where the action picked up. Miller landed several solid right hands to the head of Rashid; however Yasin was able to counter-punch effectively to again make the round seem close.
When the third round began, Shawn Miller’s jab came alive and as a result was able to set up several hard shots to both the body and head. Yasin was focusing on countering punching and landed a solid shot that caused some swelling under Miller’s left eye, and was able to keep Shawn’s jab in check. During the last part of the round, Miller landed a left-right-left combination that sent Rashid back and then closed the round with a very solid right to the body that made the crowd jump to their feet and cheer.
The fourth round seemingly belonged to Yasin Rashid as he landed several solid right hands as he picked up the pace. Miller kept it close by bullying Rashid into the ropes and worked his body with left and right hooks.
Rounds five through nine Shawn Miller took over the fight. His punch output increased as he used his jab to set up solid left hooks to the body followed by rights to Yasin’s head. By the end of the 5th, Rashid’s right eye was swelling rapidly. At times, there were some heated exchanges, but Miller was getting the best of them to the crowd’s overwhelming delight.
The tenth and final round was Yasin Rashid’s best. He fought very aggressively and dominated the round.
In the end, the three judges scored the fight 99-91, 98-92 and 96-94 all in favor of the winner, and new WBF North American Light-Heavyweight Champion, Shawn Miller. Miller improves to 11-1-1 (4 KOs).
Yasin Rashid was upset with the scores as he and his team felt they had done enough to win, but nonetheless, he drops to 7-5 (2 KOs).
Shawn Miller and his team plan to return to Whitehall in October and hope to gain a WBF World Title shot soon.
When asked how he felt about winning a WBF Title Miller said, “I am so proud to have won the WBF North American Light-Heavyweight Title. The WBF is one of the best and well respected sanctioning bodies in the World and I am glad I was up to the task to come out on top tonight. My first goal was to win this belt and now we will do what we need to do in order to compete for a WBF World Title.”
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
