Murodjon Akhmadaliev wanted to make a splash when he returned to his home country of Uzbekistan on Saturday. He did just that, stopping Ryosuke Iwasa at the 1:30 mark of the fifth round to retain the IBF and WBA (Super) junior featherweight titles. The ending didn't come without a bit of controversy, though.
Akhmadaliev was in complete control, and it was just a matter of time before either the referee stopped it, or Iwasa got knocked out. That's when the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist, who was teeing off on Iwasa with a barrage of shots, wound up sending the native of Japan to the ropes.
Iwasa was in no danger when Akhmadaliev fired one more punch that sent him into the ropes. However, the referee proceeded to jump right in and wave it off, much to the chagrin of Iwasa, who was smiling and wondering why the fight was stopped.
Akhmadaliev began the fight cautious and trying to process the information Iwasa was showing him. The 31-year-old Iwasa took advantage of that and started in good shape, as he was throwing first and snapping off a stiff jab.
Everything changed in the second round when Akhmadaliev pounded the body with hard body shots and vicious power shots that took their toll on Iwasa as the fight wore on. As the seconds went by, Iwasa's defense slowly went away, and Akhmadaliev kept his foot on the gas pedal.
Even though Iwasa was getting beat up, he kept chugging along and even surprised Akhmadaliev with a hard left hand as the fourth round came to a close.
Akhmadaliev wasn't too thrilled with being hit by that left hand and turned up the pressure in the fifth in what ended up being the final round. Akhmadaliev landed a combination that shook Iwasa for a moment. The 26-year-old kept throwing shots and blasted Iwasa with a right hook, which rocked the challenger. Akhmadaliev smelled blood and continued to land punches. The punches continued to come, and the referee waved it off just as Iwasa looked prepared to fire back.
But was the stoppage premature? #AkhmadalievIwasa pic.twitter.com/Afkdd7OsAv
Everything changed in the second round when Akhmadaliev pounded the body with hard body shots and vicious power shots that took their toll on Iwasa as the fight wore on. As the seconds went by, Iwasa's defense slowly went away and Akhmadaliev kept his foot on the gas pedal and didn't let up.
Even though Iwasa was getting beat up, he kept chugging along and even surprised Akhmadaliev with a hard left hand as the fourth round came to a close.
Akhmadaliev wasn't too thrilled with being hit by that left hand and turned up the pressure in the fifth and what ended up being the final round. Akhmadaliev landed a combination that shook Iwasa for a moment. The 26-year-old kept throwing and blasted Iwasa with a right hook which rocked the challenger. Akhmadaliev smelled blood and continued to land punches. The punches continued to come and the referee waved the it off just as Iwasa looked to prepared to fire back.