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<\/a>Former world champion Sergey Lipinets and unbeaten Custio Clayton fought to a majority draw Saturday night in a welterweight clash headlining action live on SHOWTIME\u00ae from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. in an event presented by Premier Boxing Champions.<\/p>\nLipinets (16-1-1, 12 KOs) and Clayton (18-0-1, 12 KOs) each added the first draw of their professional careers in the 12-round SHOWTIME BOXING: SPECIAL EDITION battle for the Interim IBF Welterweight Title. One judge scored the fight 115-113 for Clayton, but was overruled by the two judges who scored the bout a 114-114 draw. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I won the fight, but Clayton is a good fighter,\u201d said Lipinets. \u201cHe was stronger than I thought he\u2019d be. I haven\u2019t fought in a year and it shows. I need to get my rhythm back in a couple of fights before I face the top level fighters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, you can\u2019t knock the judges\u2019 decision, but I thought that I landed the cleaner shots and won,\u201d said Clayton. \u201cHe came forward a lot, but he wasn\u2019t landing as much. I probably could have pushed more a little earlier, but at the same time, I knew he was strong. I thought I stayed patient and poised. I could have put combinations together quicker, but overall I thought I fought a smart fight and pulled it off.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fight was defined by the Russian Lipinets\u2019 blistering body attack against the precision of the Canadian Olympian Clayton\u2019s jab. According to CompuBox, Lipinets out landed Clayton to the body by an 80 to 29 tally, while Clayton had the superior jab to the tune of 135 landed compared to 68 from Lipinets.<\/p>\n
Clayton was able to stymie the powerful Lipinets for much of the fight with his movement and that jab, but never put together the offensive arsenal to discourage Lipinets from coming forward. Clayton won the final three rounds on all of the judges\u2019 cards to earn the draw.<\/p>\n
\u201cI showed the world that I\u2019m not just a guy from Canada,\u201d said Clayton. \u201cI proved I\u2019m a good fighter. People will have to respect me a little bit more. If Lipinets wants the rematch for the interim title, we should be able to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the interim title, I\u2019ll be ready for a rematch with Clayton,\u201d added Lipinets.<\/p>\n
In the co-main event, unbeaten contender Xavier Martinez (16-0, 11 KOs) survived two knockdowns to win a unanimous decision over Claudio Marrero (24-5, 17 KOs) in their WBA Super Featherweight Title Eliminator. After 12 rounds, all three judges scored the fight for Martinez, by scores of 115-111 and 114-112 twice. (Video highlights here: https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShowtimeBoxing\/status\/1320198274733715457?s=20)<\/p>\n
\u201cNot every win is going to be pretty and a knockout, but if you can pull yourself out of tough situations, it proves what type of fighter you are,\u201d said Martinez. \u201cI knew it wasn\u2019t going to be a cakewalk. I told [trainer] Ray [Woods] I might hit this guy a couple of times and he might not drop. It\u2019s all part of the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fight featured ebbs and flows, with each man seemingly in control at different times throughout. Sacramento\u2019s Martinez flashed impressive combination punching, punctuating many attacks with a left hook that slowly closed Marrero\u2019s right eye. Representing his native Dominican Republic, Marrero actually held the statistical edge in the fight, out landing Martinez 161 to 128.<\/p>\n
Marrero seemed to change the tide of the fight in round eight, landing a powerful right hook to the head that dropped Martinez in the first minute of the frame. Marrero followed up with a flurry finished off by a right hook that again dropped Martinez. Despite the two knockdowns, Martinez was able to survive the rest of the round and avoid the hard-charging Marrero.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, it was weird when I got knocked down,\u201d said Martinez. \u201cI just said, \u2018Let\u2019s get back up.\u2019 Losing wasn\u2019t on my mind. I just thought I have to get up. I\u2019m not happy I went down but it\u2019s all an experience. A lot of guys wouldn\u2019t have fought Claudio. He was tough. But I rose to the occasion and I proved something to myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although he was fighting past the eighth round for the first time in his career, Martinez was able to regain his momentum through the championship rounds to clinch the victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it was a bad decision,\u201d said Marrero. \u201cI don\u2019t think the judges took into account all the hard work I did in the ring. I wouldn\u2019t do anything different if I fought him again. I would fight the same way. I fought smart and I put pressure on him. He hits hard, but I recovered quickly. I felt like I won the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have the will to win,\u201d said Martinez. \u201cI just didn\u2019t want to lose. I trained very hard for this fight, and I wasn\u2019t going to go out like that. I wanted to show everyone that even though I got dropped, I could come back and win it. Some young fighters will fold, but I showed that I won\u2019t. I\u2019m proud of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the telecast opener, super lightweight contender Subriel Matias (16-1, 16 KOs) scored a TKO victory over Malik Hawkins (18-1, 11 KOs) after six rounds of action. The fight was stopped on the recommendation of the ringside physician prior to the start of the seventh round and is officially scored a TKO one second into the seventh. (Video highlights here: https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShowtimeBoxing\/status\/1320182196079071232?s=20)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest difference between this fight and my loss was the way I trained in the gym,\u201d said Puerto Rico\u2019s Matias. \u201cI didn\u2019t train as much as I should have for my last fight. Malik didn\u2019t have the power to hurt me. In the first round, I knew that. And that\u2019s when I kept moving forward and starting hurting him in the body. That\u2019s what I kept doing, just going to the body.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Baltimore\u2019s Hawkins won the first round on all three judges\u2019 cards, Matias began to outwork his opponent and consistently land his left hook to the head and body. In round six, Matias knocked down a fading Hawkins with that hook, the first time Hawkins had been down in his career.<\/p>\n
Matias was the busier fighter from rounds two through six, landing 137 punches to Hawkins\u2019 94. His left hook also helped him to a 122 to 70 advantage in power punches landed, while swelling the right eye of Hawkins that would lead to the end of the fight. Matias led by the score of 59-54 on all three judges\u2019 cards at the time of the stoppage.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was doing a bunch of dirty things in the fight,\u201d said Hawkins. \u201cI\u2019m not going to sit here and cry over spilled milk. He was the better man tonight. I\u2019m getting right back into the gym.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll fight anyone,\u201d said Matias. \u201cWhoever they put in front of me, it doesn\u2019t matter. I want a title eliminator, and then I want to fight for a world title.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s SHOWTIME BOXING: SPECIAL EDITION telecast will replay on Monday at 10 p.m. ET\/PT on SHOWTIME EXTREME.<\/p>\n
An industry leading production team and announce crew delivered all the sights, sounds and drama from Mohegan Sun Arena. Veteran broadcaster Brian Custer hosted the telecast. Versatile combat sports voice Mauro Ranallo called the action ringside alongside Hall of Fame analyst Al Bernstein and three-division world champion and Olympian Abner Mares providing expert analysis. Two Hall of Famers rounded out the SHOWTIME telecast team \u2013 unofficial ringside scorer Steve Farhood and world-renowned ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. The telecast was available in Spanish via Secondary Audio Programming (SAP) with former world champion Raul Marquez and sportscaster Alejandro Luna calling the action. The Executive Producer was David Dinkins, Jr., the Producer was Ray Smaltz and the Director was Chuck McKean.<\/p>\n
The event was promoted by TGB Promotions, Lee Baxter Promotions and Mayweather Promotions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[AdSense-A] Former world champion Sergey Lipinets and unbeaten Custio Clayton fought to a majority draw Saturday night in a welterweight clash headlining action live on SHOWTIME\u00ae from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. in an event presented by Premier Boxing Champions. Lipinets (16-1-1, 12 KOs) and Clayton (18-0-1, 12 KOs) each added the first draw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95168"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}