Marseille (AFP)

Bet met: just six weeks after his last fight, the French Arsen Goulamirian retained his WBA world light-heavyweight title by beating the Moldavian Constantin Bejenaru by abandoning the call for the 10th recovery, Saturday in Marseille.

"Feroz", 32 years old, therefore keeps his belt of "super-champion" and now has 26 victories (including 18 before the limit) in as many fights.

In Marseille, where he returned for the third time in less than two years, the Franco-Armenian wanted to end a successful 2019 frustrating year.

His penultimate passage in the ring dated October 20, 2018, and had ended in a victory against the Australian Mark Flanagan by throwing in the towel in the 9th recovery. But after seeing three of his opponents shirk, he didn't put the gloves back on until November 15 for the return of noble art to Bercy. He then easily beat the Australian Kane Watts by KO in the 4th round.

"I have the urge," said "Feroz" during the weigh-in on Friday. "I did not want to stay on a fight that had lasted only four rounds. I want to finish 2019 to attack 2020 well," he said. Next year, he will be talking about tackling the world belts of the three other major professional federations (WBC, WBO, IBF).

But on Saturday, it was still necessary to get rid of an adversary difficult to define. Although 35 years old, Bejenaru had only 14 appearances, all victorious (including 4 KOs) in his professional career started in 2012.

- Checkmate -

Before the shock, the Brooklyn-based Moldavian left-hander had promised to transform the Marseilles hall into a giant chessboard. "For me, boxing is like a game of chess. The way you move your pieces determines the outcome of the fight," he said.

Eighth in the WBA classification, Bejenaru finally abandoned the game before the 10th recovery, when he had just been counted by the referee in the previous one.

However, he dominated until mid-fight, cutting Goulamirian to the arcade (2nd) and achieving the most beautiful sequences. But it gradually died out, leaving the initiative to "Feroz", who had been looking for knockout from the start.

The reigning world champion swayed his opponent twice (7th) before knocking him down (9th).

This victory before the limit was still hard to obtain. "Rude I don't know if that's the word. I couldn't find the position to strike as I feel, I am not comfortable with my hooks. As he moved a lot, he was fast and reactive, it annoyed me, "said a Goulamirian" tired "out of the ring, but happy to have met his bet.

© 2019 AFP