Sam Eggington wasted little time taking the fight to Orlando Fiordigiglio and stopped his opponent in the second round to win the IBF International super-welterweight title at the Tuscany Hall in Florence, Italy.
With many in the industry feeling that this would be Eggington’s last chance to get back into world title contention, ‘The Savage’ lived up to his name by making light work of his 35-year-old opponent.
Eggington (27-6, 16 KOs) used his jab and double jab quickly and cleanly, but got caught a couple of times by Fiordigiglio (31-3, 13 KOs) with the hook as the opening stanza went on. With the crowd chanting his name at the start of the second round, Fiordigiglio looked to keep Eggington on the end of his jab. However, Eggington was more than happy to eat the leather and walk down his opponent before pinning Fiordigiglio in the corner. He then landed a big right hand that had the 35-year-old Italian out on his feet before unleashing a barrage of punches that forced the referee to step in and save Fiordigiglio from absorbing any more punishment.
‘The Savage’ started out his professional career as a way to make some money before taking the sport more seriously and claimed the British, Commonwealth, European and WBC International welterweight titles as well as the IBO Continental super welterweight title and can look to come again in the future.
Co-main event: Luther Clay drops Dario Morello twice in dominant unanimous decision victory to claim WBO Global welterweight title
Luther Clay claimed the WBO Global welterweight title in the co-main event when he dropped Dario Morello twice en route to a unanimous decision victory in the co-featured bout.
Morello (15-1, 2 KOs) looked to get his range by using his jab from the opening bell while Clay (12-1, 5 KOs) waited for an opening before throwing the counter right hand. It wasn’t long before the 23-year-old ‘Black Panther’ started to grow in confidence by landing his jab unanswered and put together a couple of decent combos.
Controlling the pace of the bout by landing consistently and cleanly, Clay looked to further his advanced by increasing the pressure. With Morello's back against the ropes in the second round, Clay started to work the body with a couple of hooks before moving out of range of Morello’s counters. Timing his uppercut to beat Morello’s guard on several occasions, Morello looked flat-footed at times, overreaching to land his jab and leaving himself open for the counter.
A right hand from Clay in the fifth sent Morello stumbling back against the ropes and down for the first time in the fight. Morello beat the count and managed to see out of the round. Sensing a knockout, Clay upped the pressure again and caught Morello in the sixth with another guard beating uppercut. A massive right hand to the temple of Morello in the seventh had the Italian in all sorts of trouble and he was down for the second time.
Another big right hand knocked the gumshield out of Morello’s mouth bring the fight to a temporary halt before the onslaught from Clay continued. Clay lost his gumshield in the eighth before knocking Morello’s out moments later as the two men went toe-to-toe as the fight turned scrappy. With Clay’s relentless pressure, Morello’s mouthguard was out twice in the ninth but with no warning from the ref.
As the fight entered the final round of their scheduled ten rounder, the mouthguards were out again. Clay was also given a warning to be careful about the use of his elbow. In the final 90 seconds, both men went toe-to-toe again as Morello searched for a knockout to save him from suffering his first professional defeat but was unable to do so. Clay secured scores of 98-90 on all three of the judges’ scorecards.
Undercard
Devis Boschiero def. Ivan Tomas; Boschiero wins vacant IBF Inter-Continental super featherweight title
Mohammed Obbadi def. Cristian Narvaez; Flyweights
Carmine Tommasone def. Brayan Mairena; Featherweights
Sebastian Mendizabal def. Oruam Camacho; Super lightweights
Jordan Gill def. Yesner Talavera; Featherweights