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World Boxing Federation (WBF)
World Heavyweight Champion
Carlos Takam hit a speed bump on
Saturday night at the Bell
Centre in Montreal, Canada when
he only managed to get a draw
with undefeated Cuban Mike Perez
in a ten round showcase fight
televised live on HBO.
While many observers felt that
Takam (29-1-1, 23 KOs) deserved
to win the fight, in the end
only judge Nicolas Esnault had
the French-based Cameroonian
ahead by 96-94, as Jean Gauthier
and Sylvain Leblanc both scored
the fight 95-95.
In front of close to 22.000 fans
in the arena, Perez (20-0-1, 12
KOs) started the fight best, but
as the rounds went by it was
Takam who forced the action. The
WBF world champion weighed in
14,5 Lbs. (6,6 Kgs.) heavier
than when he won the title by
stopping Michael Grant last May,
but still managed to finish the
fight outworking his opponent.
Although he came on strong in
the end, it was not Takam’s best
night in the ring and it could
be categorized as one of those
close calls where you are only
inches away from disaster, and
only barely gets away with it.
Even though his world title was
not on the line, Takam would
have lost the crown had two of
the judges scored one more round
to Perez, so at the end of the
day he travels back to
Noisy-le-Grand with only a small
blemish on his record.
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