Universal Boxing Organization™ (UBO) International Light Heavyweight Champion Mohamed Merah made a successful second defense of his title on Friday night (April 11) at the Salle Theo Bouton in his hometown of Douai, France.
Merah proved to be on a different level than game, but out-gunned, challenger Jose Carlos “El Feo” Rodriguez from Mexico, and the 26-year-old looked sharp and determined from the start, focused on pleasing the 1200 fans in the sold-out venue.
Already in the first round Merah put on the pressure and scored a knock-down with a nice combination. Rodriguez beat the count of referee Jacquy Valliant, but, while he tried to fight back, he looked hurt and overwhelmed by the fired-up champion.
In the second round, Merah continued to force his opponent on the back-foot, and it was not long before he scored another heavy knockdown. At the same time, Rodriguez suffered a nasty cut over his left eye, and Valliant wisely decided to wave the fight off.
Mohamed Merah takes his professional record to 10-1-3 (3), while Rodriguez falls to 13-7-2 (11). The fight was promoted by Douai Boxing Club, headed by Robert Pantigny, who once again put on a night to remember in Douai.
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.
