This past weekend, Kevin Lerena secured the right to challenge for the WBC bridgerweight world title after a twelve round unanimous points decision over Senad Gashi.
The victory gave Lerena the interim-bridgerweight title.
Currently the full champion is Lukasz Rozanski, who is currently tied to a three division world champion Badou Jack. The winner of that fight will have to face Lerena.
Pursuant to a WBC mandate, Rozanski and Jack have until February to get their fight together – or Lerena could become the full champion by default.
“Badou Jack and Rozanski, get your act together because I wanna get it on,” Lerena said. “Rozanski and Badou Jack have to come to some sort of agreement and all I’m gonna do is keep winning.”
Lerena appeared to win the fight with Gashi quite handedly and landed the harder and more explosive punches. Gashi made several attempts to turn the tide in the second half of the fight, but he wasn’t able muster enough momentum to change the outcome.
One judge had Lerena winning close by a single point, 114-113, but the other two judges saw a lopsided victory with tallies of 118-109 and 117-110.
“We can only make do with what is put in front of us. I was working hard to get a knockout, but Saned is a tough competitor. He said he was going to knock me out, but looks like he was the one doing all the kneeing and taking a seat. I was here to fight,” Lerena said.
Lerena’s trainer, Peter Smith, was pleased with his fighter’s performance.
“[Lerena] did a great job, I loved the fight. He’s got a great jab and we are going develop that jab even better so watch out for the future. Saned is a tough opponent, he lasted and did not get knocked out. That’s what we like when we watch top fights,” Smith said.