It's rare to see boxing in the United Arab Emirates, but the partnership between Top Rank and MTK Global resulted in a special event being shown on ESPN+.
ESPN+ aired a card from the Emirates Golf Club in Dubai that was headlined by a WBC International super flyweight title bout between Aliu Bamidele Lasisi and Ricardo Blandon. Lasisi won a competitive fight by unanimous decision, surviving an early knockdown and point deduction to win the title. Lasisi, who helped seal the win by dropping Blandon in the 10th round, improves his record to 13-0.
A pair of noteworthy prospects also appeared on this card, both of which scored big knockouts and stoppages to win their pro debut. Majid Al-Naqbi stopped Vladimir Lytkin late in the fourth round while former Olympic gold medalist Shakhobidin Zoirov needed just 18 seconds to land a couple of big left hands to knock out Anthony Holt.
Below are the full results of the April 5 Dubai Fight Night card:
- Aliu Bamidele Lasisi defeated Ricardo Blandon by unanimous decision (114-111, 114-111, 114-111) to win the WBC International Super Flyweight Title
- David Oliver Joyce defeated Stephen Tiffney by RTD, round 7 to win the WBO European Featherweight Title, 3:00
- Cesar Mateo Tapia defeated Gaganpreet Sharma by TKO, round 8, 2:20
- Larry Abarra defeated Raymond Commey by unanimous decision (58-56, 58-56, 58-56)
- Sultan Zaurbek??????? defeated Chenghong Tao by KO, round 5, 1:16
- Abilkhaiyr Shegaliyev defeated Teimuraz Abuladze??????? by TKO, round 1, 2:50
- Shakhobidin Zoirov defeated Anthony Holt by KO, round 1, 0:18
- Hasibullah Ahmadi defeated Manot Comput??????? by split decision (40-36, 37-39, 40-36)
- Majid Al-Naqbi defeated Vladimir Lytkin by TKO, round 4, 2:33
- Zuhayr Al-Qahtani defeated Sk Saheb by unanimous decision (39-37, 40-36, 40-36)
- Anahit Aroyan defeated Nongnun Sor Praithong by unanimous decision (40-36, 40-36, 40-36)