Sloppy slugfest of the Big Cat’s
Las Vegas, Nevada ( March 3rd, 2013)– Sharif “the Lion” Bogere (24-1 15KO’s) came out to this fight as a caged animal, and has fought just like one. He brought a relentless attack right to the champion Richard “The Tiger” Abril (18-3-1 8KO’s), and tested the champion’s will. Bogere would not allow him to use his reach and counter skills by smothering the champ and throwing punches in bunches.
The first round started with Bogere attacking the body of the champion Abril. Abril was able to land a beautiful three-punch combo, which was answered by Bogere tossing the taller champion to the mat. It was made clear that Bogere was not going to make this fight a practice of “The Sweet Science”.
For the next three rounds, Bogere was relentless with his attack, pressuring the champion and trying to take his Abril’s head off with each shot. The wild nature of this attack was met by excessive clinching by the champion, as well as some short clean counter punching. Bogere took early control of the pace of the fight early on, but in very sloppy fashion. A lot of holding and butting went through the first 5 rounds.
The fight was sloppy and in favor of the aggressive Bogere until an accidental head butt in the 5th brought out the fight in the Champion Abril. Bogere was able to land a big right hand on Abril. Abril followed up with solid shots, and began to make the melee into a boxing contest rather then a pro wrestling match.
Abril was attempting to avoid butts by Bogere who continued to lead with his head throwing looping punches. Abril was deducted a point in the 8th for holding. A tough call to make considering Bogere was literally sprinting in on Abril and charging at the champion making this a very rough fight.
Rounds 9-12 where all for Richard Abril as the champion began to fight with a sense of urgency and began landing clean punches on the aggressive Bogere. The point taken away might have been a gift in disguise as Abril began to stay away from the rugged Bogere and turned the fight around to his favor. Bogere’s gas taken seemed to reach empty and Abril continued to land sharp, short punches. The counter punching and distance shots that Bogere had taken away in the early rounds began to come through for Abril and do damage to the Lion. The scorecard was evened out in the 12th when a point was taken away from Bogere for head butting.
Abril was able to adjust to the roughhouse tactics of Bogere and regain control of the fight. With two cuts over his eyes, the champion showed true heart and determination and was able to work his way to a hard-earned unanimous decision victory. If Abril wishes to establish himself as an elite fighter, and challenge the like of Adrien Broner, Ricky Burns and Miguel Vazquez, he must not allow himself to get behind on the cards and fight from the outside. He has a great jab, and must use it more. He grabs way too much. As a tall lanky fighter, he should be keeping these fighters at bay, and not allow them to get so close to him where he has to clinch. Both fighters fought their hearts out in a very sloppy fight. There was no question that Richard Abril did not earn the Unanimous Decision victory; there are questions about what Abril will learn from this fight. You cannot get off to a late start against the more dangerous men in this weight class, and sloppy fights such as this one will not get you big money either.
Bogere proved he is a top tier fighter and is a title contender. A fight with Gavin Rees or Antonio Demarco would be very entertaining for the young lion.
On the undercard, the 2008 US Olympian Gary Russel (22-0, 13KO’s) went 10 rounds for the first time in his career defeating Vyacheslav Gusev (20-3, 5KO’s) via Unanimous Decision. Russel was able to drop Gusev in the 3rd, and suffered some problems with his gloves throughout the match. He easily coasted to victory dominating the Russian fighter throughout the fight. Will be interesting to see Russel’s climb in the featherweight division. He needs to take a step up in competition to be truly relevant at 127.
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