Warrington vs Takoucht results: Zelfa Barrett and Lyndon Arthur win Commonwealth title fights

Zelfa Barrett retained his Commonwealth super featherweight title with a pretty dominant win over Jordan McCorry today in Leeds, capping the show’s undercard with a ninth round stoppage victory.

McCorry (18-7-1, 4 KO) probably shouldn’t have been a challenger for the belt, considering he was coming off of a loss in July to Archie Sharp, and lost in March to Sam Bowen, and lost last December to Patrick Kinigamazi in Switzerland, but it’s boxing, so we got it. And to be fair, McCorry scrapped as he always does, but he came up short for the third time this year and the fourth time in his last five fights.

Barrett (23-1, 14 KO) dropped the 28-year-old Scot in the third, eighth, and ninth rounds, doing good work to the body. McCorry, as usual, fought hard to get back every time he got hurt, but he just doesn’t have the power to do real damage, and Barrett was sharper and stronger overall.

There was a bit of chippiness in the bout, as Barrett strayed low pretty frequently, with McCorry retaliating in the eighth round with a low blow, and then being docked a point for landing a shot after the bell to end that round.

Barrett didn’t waste any time in the ninth, dropping McCorry with an uppercut about midway into the round, at which point the referee stepped in to stop what had become too one-sided an affair.

There’s speculation that Barrett, 26, may next face Archie Sharp (17-0, 9 KO), the 24-year-old who beat McCorry by wide decision on July 13 in McCorry’s last outing. Sharp most recently stopped Declan Geraghty in the fourth round on Sept. 27

Lyndon Arthur UD-12 Emmanuel Anim

Photo by Nigel Roddis/Getty Images

Arthur (16-0, 12 KO) picks up the previously vacant Commonwealth light heavyweight title with this win, which wasn’t a robbery or anything but the outcome was certainly at least a little debatable, as the 33-year-old Anim (14-3-1, 12 KO) came over from Ghana and did some good work here, possibly exposing the 28-year-old’s limitations a bit.

Scores were 115-112, 117-111, and 117-110, the latter two I think probably a hair wide for Arthur, but he did drop Anim in the fourth round and had a perfectly good argument for at least seven rounds in the fight. We may have gotten a look at Arthur’s ceiling here, but at worst he’s a solid domestic-level guy at 175 pounds with some power, and there’s a fine career in that.

Other results

• Reece Mould PTS-6 Bayardo Ramos. Mould is a 24-year-old featherweight, won the vacant English title in his last fight, wasn’t defending it here. This was a stay busy, with Mould (13-0, 6 KO) dropping Ramos (8-15-1, 4 KO) in the second round but not finishing or coming particularly close to finishing.
• Shabaz Masoud PTS-6 Yesner Talavera. Masoud, 23, is another featherweight prospect, improves to 6-0 (1 KO). He’s got some skills but clearly can’t punch, and that’s not just because he didn’t stop Talavera (15-12-1, 4 KO), because Talavera has only been stopped one time in his career. This was Talavera’s ninth straight loss, coming on his 25th birthday. Happy birthday, Yesner.