PBC on Spike: Fonfara Edges Cleverly in Wild War; Kono Topples Kameda in Crazy Battle

HIGHLIGHTS: After 12 rds, 3 pt. deductions and over 1,800 punches thrown, Kono and Kameda gave fans an epic show. https://t.co/QSEeM5XVcB

— PBC (@premierboxing) October 17, 2015

Going into their light heavyweight main event a the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, most boxing insiders expected the duel between local fighter Andrzej Fonfara and Nathan Cleverly to be a good one. What transpired inside the ring on Premier Boxing Champions’ featured attraction on Spike TV will wind up being a contender for fight of the year.

A former light heavyweight world champion itching to get back to the pinnacle of his division, Cleverly waged an all-out trench war with Fonfara for 12 grueling rounds. The two pugilists set CompuBox records for punches thrown and landed for a light heavyweight encounter, a record that was set in the ninth and 10th rounds of the scrum.

Neither warrior was taken off his feet and though there were several times during the battle where one man had to take a step back to regroup, surprisingly nobody was ever seriously wobbled or in danger of being stopped. Even when the Welshman had his nose shattered by a wicked Fonfara left uppercut on the inside, Cleverly (29-3, 15 KOs) never stopped throwing combo after combo.

Related » PBC on Spike ‘Fonfara vs. Cleverly’ Round-by-Round Scoring

Cleverly was the better of the two early on, but Fonfara’s larger build and more powerful punches began taking their toll on Cleverly as the fight wore on. A few points late in the skirmish had Fonfara perplexed as to how in the world the man from Wales was still coming straight after him time and again after taking so many clean punches to the head and body. Cleverly undoubtedly felt the same way.

“Nathan is a tough guy,” Fonfara (28-3, 16 KOs) said after the fight. “He prepared well. He has a good chin. He’s a warrior. He got broke noise but he stayed in there and tried to win.”

Cleverly never stopped trying to steal control of the fight down the stretch but Fonfara seemed to get stronger in the championship rounds. In the end, all three ringside judges agreed that the Poland native did just to win and awarded him a unanimous decision via tallies of 115-113 and 116-112 (twice).

The opening bout on the Spike telecast was a crazy brawl between Japanese super flyweights Kohei Kono and Koki Kameda, a fight that was as confusing as it was exciting. Kono was defending his WBA 115-pound titlist against the former three-division world champ, the first time ever that two Japanese fighters challenged for a world title outside of Japan.

Kameda, who is one of Japan’s biggest stars, was a step slower than the younger Kono from the start and had to keep pace throughout. Kono was extremely aggressive with blistering combos to the head and body, with most of his attacks set up behind a machine gun-like jab.

To make matters worse for Kameda, who was looking to make history at becoming the only Japanese fighter to capture a world title in a fourth division, referee Celestino Ruiz lost control of the action almost immediately.

Kono was hurt badly by what looked like a left hook to the liver late in the second and as he grimaced in pain and clutched the right side of his body, Kameda closed in for the kill. A flurry sent the champ to the canvas, but Ruiz ruled the punches to be low (replays proved the third man was correct). But when Kono got back to his feet after he had a few moments to recover, he darted across the ring and dropped his challenger with a short right cross.

The tiny giants continuously clinched and mauled each other on the inside and Ruiz had a terrible time getting the two non-English-speaking pugs to listen. Kameda landed another low blow later in the third, which cost him a point. A short while after the penalty, the two came together and their heads clashed. Kameda (33-2, 18 KOs) complained to Ruiz about the incidental head butt, but Ruiz literally yelled, “Shut up!” During an exchange later in the third, Kameda delivered a pair of shots to the body but Ruiz deemed them low and again penalized the Osaka-born fighter a point.

Between the wild exchanges and blistering flurries of action, Ruiz continuously scorned the fighters, warned them for various infractions that either occurred or didn’t and had no control over the pace of the fight.

The most puzzling moment came in the seventh when the fighters traded leather in the center of the ring, capped off by an overhand right to the head by the challenger. Ruiz inexplicably called timeout, waked over to a ringside official, covered his microphone and whispered something off-camera. From there, Celestino brought the two fighters to the center of the ring and sternly warned them that the next foul from either man will result in a disqualification, even though Kono had yet to be officially penalized.

Kono did have a point taken in the ninth for repeatedly pushing down on Kameda’s head when the tied each other up, but it was merely mathematic; Kono (31-8-1, 13 KOs) won a unanimous decision in lopsided fashion. The three judges all favored the Tokyo-based champion with tallies of 115-109, 116-108 and 113-111.