Kovalev pounds Mikhalkin to keep light heavyweight title
Sergey Kovalev successfully defended his WBO light heavyweight title Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York, opening a deep cut under fellow Russian Igor Mikhalkin’s right eye that forced the fight to be stopped with 35 seconds left in the seventh round.
Kovalev won his second consecutive fight since his back-to-back losses to Andre Ward, dealing punishment to his former amateur teammate in the first defense of the title he regained in his last bout.
Kovalev (32-2-1) took some punches but simply walked through them and opened the cut in the sixth round. Then in the seventh, referee Steve Willis halted the action and sent Mikhalkin to the corner after a flurry of punches to his face, and the physician said the fight needed to be halted.
“This was better work than the last fight for sure,” Kovalev said.
Mikhalkin (21-2) had a bloody U.S. debut, winning just one round on one judge’s card.
In the other light heavyweight title fight at Madison Square Garden, WBA champion Russian Dmitry Bivol (13-0, 11 KOs) stopped Cuba’s Sullivan Barrera in the 12th round.
At the Barclays Center in New York, Deontay Wilder (40-0) survived a pummeling from Luis Ortiz (28-1), then knocked out the challenger in the 10th round to retain his WBC heavyweight crown.
“A true champion always finds a way to come back and that’s what I did tonight,” Wilder said. “Luis Ortiz is definitely a crafty guy. He put up a great fight. We knew we had to wear him down. I showed everyone I can take a punch.” ELSEWHERE
Larson rolls to win in Xfinity Series
Kyle Larson overcame strong wind and two late restarts to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Larson earned his ninth career Xfinity victory and his first in Vegas, where he finished second in the Xfinity and Cup series races last year.
The 25-year-old Californian claimed the lead early on in his Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, and avoided any late-race fuel trouble when Ryan Reed blew a tire with 16 laps to go. Skiing: Marcel Hirscher locked up the men’s World Cup giant slalom title with a race to spare.
The Olympic GS champion from Austria won the penultimate event of the season at Kranjska Gore, Slovenia, for his 56th career victory, giving him an insurmountable 125-point lead in the GS standings over Norwegian rival Henrik Kristoffersen.
Tina Weirather won a World Cup super-G in Crans Montana, Switzerland, to overtake Lara Gut for first place in the discipline’s standings with one race left. The Olympic bronze medalist from Liechtenstein finished in 1 minute, 2.17 seconds to beat Olympic silver medalist Anna Veith of Austria by 0.36 seconds. Track and field: Tomas Walsh of New Zealand broke a 31-yearold world indoors athletics championship record to win the shot put in Birmingham, England. Defending champion Walsh threw a record 73.2 feet with his last throw to gasps from spectators at Arena Birmingham. Sled-dog racing: Cheering fans lined the streets as mushers took their dog teams for a short sprint in Anchorage, Alaska, for the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The competitive portion of the 1,000-mile race to Nome begins Sunday.