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07/11 16:47 CDT Gassiev marks first WBA heavyweight title defense by stopping
Kadiru in round 6
Gassiev marks first WBA heavyweight title defense by stopping Kadiru in round 6
MOSCOW (AP) --- Murat Gassiev marked the first defense of his WBA world
heavyweight title by stopping Peter Kadiru in the sixth round Saturday.
Kadiru's corner threw in the towel after a sustained attack by the champion,
who took his career record to 34-2.
Gassiev was originally meant to face Tony Yoka for the WBA's secondary
heavyweight crown but got an upgrade to the full title, and a new opponent,
after unified champion Oleksandr Usyk vacated his belts last month.
Yoka pulled out with a back injury and Kadiru (23-2), a German with a record of
fighting largely unheralded opponents, was made a surprise replacement
challenger at short notice.
Gassiev has followed Usyk in holding titles at both cruiserweight and
heavyweight.
Usyk beat Gassiev in 2018 to take the two belts he held at the time and unify
the cruiserweight division, before moving up to heavyweight a year later.
Nicknamed "Iron," Gassiev's career at heavyweight suffered a setback in 2023
with a loss to Otto Wallin, before he knocked out repeat title contender Kubrat
Pulev in Dubai last year to win the WBA's "regular" title.
At the age of 32, Russian fighter Gassiev could be a presence in the division
for years to come.
Kadiru was a surprise opponent, arguably best known for winning a Youth
Olympics gold medal as a 17-year-old amateur in 2014. Of his 24 professional
fights before Saturday, most were against obscure opponents and all but three
were in Germany.
The one previous loss on his record was a knockout in less than a minute
against the similarly unheralded Marcos Antonio Aumada in 2022.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
