This was published 2 years ago
What a night of boxing.
Paulo Aukuso dug deep and got the job done, while the footballers put on a show.
So what did we learn?
Nelson Asofa-Solomona entered the ring a novice and left it a cult hero. The big bopper almost decapitated Jarrod Wallace within five seconds with a right uppercut for the ages.
The judges have given it to the local. One judge couldn’t split them, scoring it 95-95, while the others handed it 98-92 and 97-94 to Aoukuso.
Apparently Aoukuso didn’t sleep at all the night before the weigh-in as he tried to make the weight. The whole ordeal seemed to take a toll and he had to dig deep to keep his undefeated professional record intact.
And that’s the final bell.
Diaz landed some good shots here. Feels like Aukuso is fading a little in the latter rounds. Not entirely a surprise given everything that’s gone on.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the Argentine gets the decision. Let’s see how the judges view it.
We’re going to the deciding round. Aukuso’s manager told him not to take this fight and perhaps he should have listened. There is nothing in this.
Aukuso started the round better, but Diaz finished with a flurry. Could recency bias result in the Argentine stealing another round?
The Townsville crowd has been boisterous all evening, but they are a bit subdued here.
A very even contest, although Diaz fired off a neat combo that scored midway through the round. Now that we’re going deep, we’ll see just how much Aukuso’s disrupted preparation took out of him.
A couple of technicians here, a far cry from the blood and thunder dished up by the heavyweight footballers. Here’s more of the action.
Good round for Aukuso. Started it by landing a solid left and controlled the distance for the rest of it. We’re now halfway there and there’s very little between them.
Diaz had a good finish to what was another close round.
Here’s some of the action so far ...
Diaz is throwing more punches here, but Aukuso has a knack of getting most of them to slide by.
A couple have landed glancing blows. Would like to see the Australian get a bit busier.