On his American debut, Nordine Oubaali boxed his way to his first world title victory on pay-per-view.
In the first of three title fights that took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Oubaali defeated defeated Rau'Shee Warren by unanimous decision (115-113, 116-112, 117-111) to win the WBC bantamweight title. The fight took place on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Adrien Broner undercard.
The unbeaten Oubaali opened the fight by swinging for the fences at some moments early in the fight. Warren's best punches early in the fight came from counter punching and utilizing the left hand and the check right hook. Oubaali did get some solid punches in on Warren in the fifth round, feinting with the left hand and connecting on a right hook. Warren became hesitant to let his hands go throughout the middle rounds, which allowed Oubaali to take control of the fight.
Oubaali landed a flurry of punches in the seventh round that hurt Warren and would go on to build a solid lead in the scorecards in the second half of the fight. Warren eventually fought back in the last couple of rounds to try and get the decision to go his way, but it was a little too late for that as Oubaali had secured the victory on the scorecards.
As the new WBC bantamweight champion, Oubaali must now face interim champion Takuma Inoue, who won his title less than a month ago in Japan. Oubaali became the first WBC bantamweight champion since Luis Nery, who was stripped of the title nearly one year ago for missing weight before a title defense against Shinsuke Yamanaka.
