In a dramatic fight, Mario Barrios survived a scare from Batyr Akmedov to come out the winner by unanimous decision after 12 rounds and capture the vacant WBA world super lightweight title in one of the featured undercards of the Spence-Porter IBF/WBC welterweight unification fight at the Staples Center Saturday night (Sunday in Manila).
Barrios controlled the first half of the fight capped by a 4th round knockdown when Barrios caught Akhmedov with a short left to the chin that forced the Russian to touch his gloves to the canvas that was counted by the referee as a knockdown.
Beginning in round seven however, Akhmedov turned the tide in his favor by coming inside and throwing non-stop stop punches. Employing a suffocating offense, Akhmedov hurt Barrios with a left cross to the chin in the 10th round. Coming into the last two rounds of the fight, it was obvious that Barrios has weakend and Akhmedov was a few telling punches away to finish Barrios. As the 12th round came to a close Barrios caught Akhmedov with a right cross to the chin coming in that again forced the Russian to touch his gloves to the canvas for another knockdown that sealed the fight for a Barrios win and his first world title.
Barrios now improves his undefeated record to 25-0-0 with 16 wins inside the distance while Akhmedov suffered his first loss in eight fights.
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