By Cliff Rold

Bell Centre, Montreal, Canada - The televised opener featured a glacially paced Light Heavyweight affair.

Showing the merits of his better experience, 27-year old Isaac Chilemba (24-2-2, 10 KO), 175, of Johannesburg, South Africa, easily outboxed a previously undefeated and mostly unwilling 29-year old Vasily Lepikhin (17-1, 9 KO), 175, of Gelendhzik, Russia, for a ten-round shutout. Using his jab and steady rights and lefts, Chilemba bruised the eyes of Lepikhin and bloodied his nose. Lepikhin offered some jabs and occasional body shots but lacked much spirit is his effort. Lepikhin was a late replacement for big punching Artur Beterbiev.

Chilemba was awarded scores of 100-90 and 99-91 twice. He is likely to at least hold serve having entered the bout rated #2 by the WBC, #6 by the WB), and #7 by the IBF at 175 lbs.

The card was broadcast on in the US on premium outlet HBO as part of its “World Championship Boxing” series, promoted by Main Events and Interbox.

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene and a member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com