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Rising welterweight contender Kudratillo Abdukakhorov kept his undefeated record intact tonight, beating long ago former titleholder Luis Collazo by unanimous technical decision in Philadelphia, live on ESPN.
Abdukakhorov won on scores of 97-93, 98-92, and 99-91. Bad Left Hook scored the fight 96-94 and 98-92 for Abdukakhorov on two cards.
The fight ended at 2:03 of the 10th round after a nasty accidental clash of heads badly cut Collazo and had the southpaw woozy, clearly unable to continue safely.
Before that, Collazo (39-8, 20 KO) fought a gritty bout, but looked very much like a veteran gatekeeper, too, as Abdukakhorov (17-0, 9 KO) was able to land consistently throughout. The fight was competitive in the first half, but Abdukakhorov began to pull away as it went on, which is what you would hope of a 26-year-old fighter on the way up against a 38-year-old fighter on the way out sooner than later.
Collazo also dealt with reported cramping in his left biceps, which left him one-armed for much of the bout, and obviously that did him no favors.
The jury’s still out on what Abdukakhorov’s ceiling really is at welterweight, which is extremely top heavy with seven fighters either holding titles or considered serious contenders, and then a pretty significant drop off from there in quality. Abdukakhorov is firmly in that second tier, and will surely have to make improvements to legitimately join the top tier, but he’s still pretty young and certainly will have his chances to get in that mix. It wouldn’t at all be shocking to see him face Terence Crawford next year, even.
CompuBox saw Abdukakhorov land 182 of 630 (29%) of his total punches, and 160 of 427 (38%) of his power shots. Collazo landed 131 of 485 (27%) overall, and 102 of 286 (36%) of his power punches. It wasn’t a fight heavy on jabs, but Collazo did out-jab Abdukakhorov, 29-22. Abdukakhorov landed 28 body shots to Collazo’s 23.