Pampellone upset in fight of the year contender

The world-rated Kiwi light heavyweight Jerome Pampellone suffered his first defeat in a Sydney bloodbath that will go down as a fight of the year contender in Australasia.

Pampellone was outpointed in a majority decision by Libya’s Malik Zinad (22-0, 16 KOs), in an IBF world title eliminator at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney on Wednesday night.

At the end of 12 bloody and bruising rounds, one judge scored the contest a draw, 114-114, but the other two awarded the fight to Zinad, both by the margin of 117-111.

Pampellone’s Kiwi fans were given a gut punch of their own before the fight, with the broadcast rights for the biggest night of his career not being picked up in New Zealand.

That’s despite what was at stake, with Zinad now earning the right for a shot at the winner of a titanic clash between world champions Artur Beterbiev and Dmitrii Bivol in Saudi Arabia in June.

Coming into the fight on the back of three first-round knockouts, Pampellone, who has struggled to find meaningful opponents, didn’t look his usual sharp self, with a lack of head movement and a tendency to load up on his shots, often lunging toward Zinad.

Pampellone, who was ranked the No 4 contender by the IBF before the fight, was cut over both eyes, which will have impacted the vision of the Kiwi contender, who now has an 18-1 record.

Zinad, who split his time in the 12 rounds between talking to his opponent, the Pampellone corner and outboxing his Kiwi rival, rocked Pampellone in the fifth and seventh rounds but the Kiwi never lost his feet. He was able to land plenty of big shots himself, but Zinad refused to wobble.

The result was less than ideal in Pampellone’s first fight with Australian promoter No Limit, but at just 27, there is time for him to mount another run. The loss to Zinad was the first time in Pampellone’s professional career that he’d been truly tested so, despite the disappointment, the experience will be invaluable.

Earlier in the night, Pampellone’s Peach Boxing stablemate Andrei Mikhailovich made a surprise appearance and moved to 21-0 with a first-round knockout of Australian super middleweight veteran Les Sherrington (39-18, 23 KOs).

A brutal left rip to the body halfway through the opening round dropped Sherrington and he was left moaning in significant pain, with no chance of beating the count.