Unbeaten Oleksandr Gvozdyk has retained his WBC light-heavyweight world title with a bizarre victory over Doudou Ngumbu.
In his first title defence since beating Adonis Stevenson, a fight which left the Canadian in a medically induced coma, Gvozdyk secured a fifth-round stoppage victory when Ngumbu suffered a seemingly innocuous calf injury.
Gvozdyk was in complete control of the fight when, in the fifth round, Ngumbu suddenly turned his back on the Ukrainian before grabbing onto the ropes and limping back to his corner.
Referee Eric Dali then mistakenly ruled an accidental foul even though there was no contact between the men, giving Ngumbu time to recover from the injury while Gvozdyk waited in a neutral corner. But it quickly became clear that the Frenchman was in no fit state to continue, with the fight then stopped.
“It wasn't what I expected, but I did my best,” Gvozdyk said. “Sometimes, this happens [in boxing]. It is what it is.
“My goal is to now unify titles,” he added. “I will wait to see what my team tells me to do next.”
It helps that Top Rank also promote IBF holder Artur Beterbiev, who fights Radivoje Kalajdzic in May, as well as co-promoting Sergey Kovalev, the former WBA, IBF and WBO champion and comfortably the biggest name in the division.
Gvozdyk had last fought in December 2018, knocking out 41-year-old Stevenson to capture the WBC title in a fight which left the latter with a “severe traumatic brain injury”.
Stevenson had emergency brain surgery and has been learning to walk and speak again, his fiancé Simone God recently told the Los Angeles Times.
“He's doing so great. I feel he's going to make a 100% recovery - something usually not seen following such a traumatic brain injury,” she said.
On the undercard, rising star Kudratillo Abdukakhorov comfortably outpointed Japan’s Keita Obara to earn a mandatory shot at IBF welterweight king Errol Spence Jr.
