Middleweight contender Sebastian Demers of Montreal dropped a razor thin ten-round split decision in front of his hometown fans to late substitute Dionisio Miranda of Columbia on Friday night at the Gare Windsor Salle des Pas Perdus in Montreal, Canada.
Both fighters started out slow, engaging in a tactical battle as Demers looked to establish his rapid-fire jab while Miranda looked to land his powerful straight right hand. The action was nip and tuck throughout the following rounds with each fighter finding limited success in spurts. Miranda finally found a home for his powerful right hand in the eighth as Demers backed up along the ropes. Though the powerful Columbian landed some hard shots, Demers was able to weather the storm to survive the round. Miranda's success continued into the ninth round when a wide looping right connected to the head of Demers, who was wobbled and took a knee to gather his thoughts. Credit should be given to Demers, who dug down deep to fire back some hard leather of his own after eating some of Miranda's big shots. In the end, however, it was the knockdown that turned the tide in favor of Miranda.
The three judges scored the bout 95-94 for Demers and 95-94 twice for Miranda. With the win, Miranda becomes the new NABA middleweight champion and improves his record to 20-2-2, 18 KOs. Demers tastes the bitterness of defeat for the second time in his pro career as his record falls to 25-2, 9 KOs.
On the televised undercard, Montreal based junior middleweight David Lemieux battered the overmatched Ulises Duarte of Mexico forcing a first round stoppage.
From the opening bell, Lemieux pounced on Duarte, forcing the Mexican to take a knee seconds into the round due to a hard left hook. Duarte rose to his feet, but moments later, he took yet another knee as Lemieux pressed his attack. A jarring right hand from Lemieux ended the fight as Duarte again took a knee. Since there was a three knockdown rule in effect, the fight was over.
The official time of the stoppage was 1:45 into the first round. With the win, Lemieux remains an undefeated prospect and improves his record to 10-0, 10 KOs; Duarte falls to 16-18-1, 15 KOs.
In arguably one of the strangest endings to a fight, former Contender star Anthony Bosante was counted out after apparently playing possum when he was knocked down by Adonis Stevenson in the first round.
Shortly after the opening bell, Bosante was caught with a straight left hand thrown by Stevenson and he went down on his back. As Bosante laid flat on his back, eyes closed and motionless, referee Gerry Bolen began to issue his count. Upon reaching the count of six, Bolen, assuming that Bonsante was knocked out cold, waived the fight off. Quickly, Bosante jumped up and began to scream that he was due his mandatory eight count. What ensued was a shouting match between the referee and fighter as Bolen pointed out the fact that Bosante gave no indication that he was fit to continue. Judging from his reaction, it is hard to believe that Bosante was truly hurt, but the simple fact of the matter is that he gave no indication to the referee that he was fit to continue until after the fight had been waived off.
The official time of the stoppage was 46 seconds into the first round. With the victory, Stevenson remains undefeated and snags the WBC Continental Americas super middleweight title as he improves his record to 12-0, 9 KOs. Bosante hopefully learned a valuable lesson in not toying with a referee as his record falls to 31-10-3, 18 KOs.
The card was televised live on ESPN2's Friday Night Fights.