By Alexey Sukachev

Latvia - In a very hard fight, former WBO middleweight title challenger Artur "The Wolverine" Akavov (19-2, 8 KOs) barely got past inexperienced but willing Argentinean Gonzalo Coria (12-2, 5 KOs) in a scheduled ten-rounder for the WBO International middleweight championship.

Scores were: 96-93, 96-95, and 95-94 - for much more experienced Akavov, 32.

Akavov gave hell to Billy Joe Saunders in December 2016, losing a very close (and surprisingly so) unanimous decision (113-115, 113-115, 112-116).

He was back in 2017 with a split over Josue Obando, missed a year after and came back this March with the first-round kayo of 35-5-1 Jean Carlos Prada.

The beginning of this fight was very much alike, as Akavov promptly dropped Coria in round one. However, the Argentinean hasn't been there for taking. He moved expertly out of the harm's way, forcing Akavov to lean forward and to lose steam in his punches.

Akavov, boxing in Carl Froch's style, did land some flush shots but Coria moved well not to being hit ofthen. His jab and body shots troubled Akavov in return. Both fighters were doing their work by the mid-point. At that time, the Argentinean had some success while standing his ground in the center of the ring. However, the very end of the contest was certainly Akavov's, who scored some very hard blows to the head of Coria, 21.

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Playing possum can be fatal if the referee becomes too annoyed with your style. In a battle of two African expatriates, Belgium-based Rwandan Jean-Pierre Habimana (9-13-3, 4 KOs) got to know that the hard way, when he was stopped with only seconds remaining in the eighth and final round of his fight against Luthando Mthimkulu (8-1, 4 KOs), also known as Luther Clay, from South Africa.

Clay was the aggressor throughout an entire fight, while Habimana chose to move more than to throw punches, though did that wonderfully, specifically with his upper body movement. Clay did rock him several times but Habimana managed to counter him with some rigid leather of his own. With seconds remaining in the eighth round, Clay landed several hard shots to the body, and added more axe-like bombs to the head, forcing the referee to call it quits at 2:46 of the final round. Habimana lost inside the distance for the first time in his career.