Keith Hunter won a 10-round unanimous decision over Sanjarbek Rakhmanov in a junior welterweight rematch at Sam’s Town in Las Vegas.
In round three, Hunter dropped Rakhmanov with a body shot.
Hunter, 141 1/2 lbs of Las Vegas won by scores of 98-91 twice and 97-92 and is now 12-0. Rakhmanov, 143 lbs of Las Vegas is 12-3-1.
“I really wanted to stop him but the judges saw the effort I put in,” said Hunter. “I gave it my all and even though we didn’t close the show, I think we stole the show. I think I improved from the last fight to this fight and made more of a statement this time.
“The 140-pound division is stacked and I think I put the rest of the division on notice that I’m here. I’m not going anywhere and we’re definitely a threat.”
Richardson Hitchins won a 10-round unanimous decision over Nick DeLomba in a junior welterweight bout.
Hitchins, 141 1/4 lbs of New York, NY won by shutout scores of 100-90 on all cards and is now 11-0. DeLomba, 141 1/2 lbs of Cranston, RI is 16-3.
“I’d rate my performance an 8.5 out of 10,” said Hitchins. “I got hit with little petty shots I could’ve avoided. I thought I could get him out in the second or third round, but I knew he could take a punch.
“He’s fought a couple a big hitters at 147, they knocked him down and he came back up. I knew his game plan was to keep the pressure on me. He was a durable opponent. I wanted to show a different side of my skillset and I think I did that
Genc Pllana scored an upset 10-round majority decision over Kevin Newman II in a super middleweight.
Pllana used his awkward style to thwart Newman and won by close scores of 96-94 on all cards.
Pllana, 168 lbs of Kosovo is 8-1-1. Newman, 167 3/4 lbs of Las Vegas is 11-2-1.
“I’m very happy with my performance but in the fourth round he poked me in my eye,” said the Albanian Pllana, who fights out of Hagerstown, Md., under the tutelage of former two-division world champion Simon Brown. “For the next three rounds, I was seeing three people. In the seventh round, I finally saw one man and started seeing straight again. My style caused big problems for him but if I didn’t get poked in the fourth round it would have been a stoppage.”
“I don’t have anyone to blame but myself,” said Las Vegas’ Newman, who is trained by future Hall of Famer Roy Jones Jr. and former world champion Bones Adams. “I was in shape and out of focus, period. I beat myself tonight, but I’ll bounce back.”
