Paris (AFP)
The Frenchman Nordine Oubaali retained his WBC World Bantamweight title by beating Filipino Arthur Villanueva by stopping the referee from the call of the 7th restart on Saturday at Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
It was the first defense of the conquered belt on January 19 in Las Vegas against the American Rau'shee Warren.
32-year-old Oubaali, one of only two French-styled "world champions" in one of the four major professional federations (with Arsen Goulamirian, holder of the WBA light-heavyweight title), remains undefeated in 16 fights (including 12 successes before the limit).
Very offensive as usual, the native of Lens sent his opponent to the carpet in the 6th round after a beautiful sequence uppercut left-right hook before the referee abbreviates the debate after the avalanche of blows received by Villanueva (30 years, 32 wins, 4 defeats, 1 draw).
Oubaali's medium-term objective is to try to unify the category by facing the winner of the duel between the Japanese Naoya Inoue, IBF champion and WBA (regular), and the Filipino Nonito Donaire, "super champion" WBA, scheduled at the end of the year.
kn / bfi
? 2019 AFP