Eurosport Live, Thursday 14th July.

IBF International Bantamweight Title and WBA Intercontinental Bantamweight Title - Lee Haskins UD12 Mohammed Boulegcha

This was a strange bill from marketplace in Marakesh. There were no stands, just some VIP seats near the ring and then some steel barriers a little further back, behind which stood the spectators. They were about five deep in places but were augmented by a passing trade from people going about their every day business and stopping to see what was going on. The sort of thing that you only see on Eurosport.

The fight turned out to be a comfortable one for Haskins. He worked out very early on that Boulegcha didn't have the pace or power to hurt him and by the third round he had dropped his guard and was relying on reactions to get him out of trouble when needed. He was comfortable switching between southpaw and orthodox and did so regularly, a tactic that left Boulegcha struggling to work out how to hit him. Boulegcha on the other hand attacked largely in straight lines with no great speed, and was on the back foot for the majority of the fight.

As the fight entered the middle rounds it had turned into an extended sparring session for Haskins, and it was needed as he was scrappy at times. He threw a lot of single shots, a significant number of which missed what was a fairly static target. He was hurting Boulegcha with body shots but failed to persue that line of attack, instead looking for eye-catching shots to the head, but leading with a left hook is rarely going to pay great dividends.

Credit has to go to the Moroccan for lasting the course. He was bleeding from the nose from the third and another cut opened under his left eye in the tenth. He also took two 8 counts but aside from the odd body shot was never hurt, just battered. In the end it was a comfortable victory for Haskins but he looked ring rusty and ill-disciplined at times. A more controlled and less flashy performance and he could have saved the judges the hassle of totting up the scores.


EBA Cruiserweight Title - Rachid El Hadak UD12 Rene Hubner

This was as easy a fight to score as you could ever ask to watch, though if given the choice I suggest you don't. Hubner had very little to bring to the fight and El Hadak dominated from start to finish. The veretan German held a high defence and inched forward early on, but El Hadak regularly found a way through with his left jab, and was also landing combinations to head and body. Hubner was throwing the odd single shot but nothing was landing to any effect and by the third round El Hadak was in total control and he knew it. From there he started to back Hubner up more often and continued to work both body and head.

By the end of the third the commentators had gone off on a tangent about the role of journeymen boxers and it was far more interesting than what was happening in the ring. At the end of the sixth my recorded programme ended and I was left not knowing what the final result was, though there was very little suspense as I ventured onto the internet to find out. All three of the judges scored every round to the home fighter and there could be no argument based on the six I saw.