Three years in the making, Super WBA cruiserweight champion Arsen Goulamirian of France and his long-time WBA #1 ranked contender (and former WBA Gold belt owner) Alexey Egorov from Russia finally met each other at La Palestre in Le Cannet, France.

And the champion proved his superiority with a close but honestly-earned come-from-behind unanimous decision after twelve intense rounds. BoxingScene's final tally reads 116-113 - for the France-based Armenian.

The scores were 116-112, 117-111, 116-112.

Egorov and Goulamirian were previously scheduled to clash against one another a year ago as a part of the RCC/World of boxing promoted extravaganza in Ekaterinburg, Russia. The fight was canceled at the last minute when Arsen's COVID test came back positive. Neither fighter fought since the COVID outbreak, Goulamirian being out of the ring for 35 months, and Egorov - for 32 months.

With the win, Goulamirian moved to very solid 27-0, with 18 KOs, making the second defense of his belt and being victorious in his fifth consecutive WBA title match-up (dating back to his March 2018 stoppage of fellow undefeated Ryad Merhy for the interim title). Egorov suffers his first loss and drops down to 11-1, with 7 KOs.

Both fighters started the bout with jabs. Egorov was the first one to land a serious punch - a major right hand through the guard of Goulamirian, who took it well. Feroz answered with some shots of his own but exchanges were mostly even with neither fighter having an upper hand. 

Egorov started to throw more combos in the second round. The Russian's punches weren't exceptionally heavy but the French Armenian felt some of them. Egorov's punch output was especially high during the middle of the round. Goulamirian surged during the last minute of the round to stay in the contest.  

In the third, the Frenchman started very fast, throwing a number of shots, and some of them landed. Goulamirian used his physical stature and power to work on Egorov's body. The Russian responded well later on, landing a major right hand on Arsen's way out - his best punch by that point of the clash. 

The fourth saw Egorov land considerably more than his counterpart, albeit the Russian's punches weren't very heavy, and Goulamirian took them well. Yet, it was Egorov, who controlled the fight and did a bigger amount of work. The same was true for the fifth, a showcase of Egorov's brilliant left power jab, which troubled the Frenchman at a middle range. Egorov did more, even though Goulamirian was more than a live dog. 

Goulamirian changed the flow of the fight by surging hard in the sixth. The French fighter rallied hard at the beginning of the round, while the Russian responded with a heavy right hand during the midst. Yet, the round was taken over by Arsen, who landed several huge combinations at the end of the stanza. 

Both the seventh and the eighth were in favor of Goulamirian, who caught the second wind and started to deliver really mean punches both to the body and to the head of Egorov. Alexey answered with some body shots, but it was Arsen Goulamirian who hurt the fatigued Russian early into the eighth. The French Armenian continued to put it on and landed a number of combinations, pinning Egorov to the ropes and hurting him slightly. Despite all efforts by Egorov, Goulamirian ended the two-round skid with a serious flurry of shots. 

Egorov went back to basics and took the first half of round nine with some one-two combinations but also landed a number of precise uppercuts. Goulamirian was better during the second half of it, making the stanza very even. 

In the tenth, Goulamirian was considerably fresher, while Egorov's punch output had critically decreased, allowing Goulamirian both to throw more (and to land more) and also to take pauses if needed. Egorov landed some clean shots but Arsen's tonnage was much bigger than that of Alexey.

Goulamirian's domination continued into the eleventh, allowing Egorov to land in spurts but taking all in between. Alexey Egorov was much better at the start of the twelfth and final round but it was more of an illusion as Goulamirian just took some time off before taking the fight back under his control by the end of the round.