Alexander Besputin 14-0 (9) claimed the vacant WBA ‘regular’ welterweight title with a hard-fought 12-round unanimous decision win over Radzhab ‘The Python’ Butaev 12-1 (9) at the Casino de Monte Carlo Salle Medecin in Monte Carlo, Monaco on Saturday night.
The fight was even through the first six frames before Besputin pulled away in the second half of the fight. Judges Stanley Christodoulou, Pawel Kardyni and Jean Robert Laine all scored the fight the same, 116-112 for Besputin.
The 28-year-old Russian southpaw was quick to call out the winner of the WBO welterweight title fight between champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford 35-0 (26) and challenger Egidijus Kavaliauskas 21-0-1 (17) at Madison Square Garden in New York on December 14.
“I was very confident that I was winning the fight, and I got a little tired in the very end,” Besputin said through his translator and manager Egis Klimas.
“I put in my punches very hard, but I was trying to aim my target. It was very difficult (knowing each other so well) and we have a big history going from the amateurs, but we never fought at the amateurs.
“I did everything and I’m ready for the big arena. I would like to unify the titles, and Crawford is in my division and I’ll be cheering for Egidijus, so we will see.”
Promoter Lou DiBella praised Butaev’s skills before the fight.
“Butaev has tremendous skill,” DiBella told The Ring. “He was an A-level amateur, and it’s no accident that he and Besputin will fight for a belt.”
On the same card undisputed female welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus 36-0 (9) scored a one-sided 10-round unanimous decision victory over former lightweight champion Victoria Bustos 19-6 by scores of 99-91, 98-92 and 98-92.
 claimed the vacant WBA ‘regular’ welterweight title with a hard-fought 12-round unanimous decision win over Radzhab ‘The Python’ Butaev 12-1 (9) at the Casino de Monte Carlo Salle Medecin in Monte Carlo, Monaco on Saturday night.){kind=link}