NEW YORK – Frederic Julan made Umar Dzambekov work right up until the final bell to remain unbeaten Thursday night.
The French southpaw pushed Dzambekov throughout their bout, but the Russian light heavyweight prospect outpointed him on all three scorecards. Dzambekov (8-0, 5 KOs), also a southpaw, won a unanimous decision on the Callum Walsh-Ismael Villarreal undercard in The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
Judges Mark Consentino (78-74), Woleska Roldan (79-73) and Tom Schreck (78-74) all scored the fight for Dzambekov. Julan (13-3, 10 KOs), a Paris native who is based in Brooklyn, hasn’t been knocked out in 16 professional fights.
Julan nailed Dzambekov with a right hook as their fight drew to a close in the eighth round, but he couldn’t hurt Dzambekov to get the knockout he needed to win.
Julan landed a left uppercut as Dzambekov pressed forward toward the end of the sixth round. Julan drilled Dzambekov with a left hand about a minute into the sixth round.
A straight left by Dzambekov got Julan’s attention and backed him into the ropes with just over 35 seconds remaining in the fifth round. Dzambekov landed a right hook with just under two minutes to go in the fifth round.
Dzambekov’s straight left backed up Julan barely a minute into the fourth round. Julan’s left uppercut connected with just over a minute to go in the third round.
Dzambekov spent much of the first round following Julan around the ring. He had difficulty connecting with clean shots in the opening three minutes, though, because the crafty Julan often stayed out of his punching range.
In the bout before Dzambekov’s victory, Armenian welterweight prospect Gor Yeritsyan completely controlled the action against Luis Alberto Veron and won an eight-round unanimous decision.
Yeritsyan (17-0, 14 KOs) went the distance for just the third time in his six-year pro career, but he defeated Argentina’s Veron (20-8-2, 9 KOs) comfortably on all three scorecards (80-71, 79-72, 78-73).
Veron is 2-7 in his past nine fights, but he has been knocked out only once in his eight-year, 30-fight professional career.
Yeritsyan’s left hook on the inside knocked Veron to the canvas with just over 40 seconds remaining in the third round. Veron beat the count, though, and remained on his feet until the final bell, despite that the heavy-handed Yeritsyan hit him with plenty of flush punches during rounds four through eight.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.