Outside Source
Abdullah Mason (21-0) put his WBO lightweight title on the line against Albert Bell (28-1) on Saturday at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland. Mason, 22, the youngest current boxing world champion, didn’t find momentum in the early rounds. However, the Cleveland native turned the tide in the latter rounds, scoring two knockdowns, the second of which led to the stoppage, albeit not without controversy.
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Mason dropped Bell with a left hook early in the final frame that didn’t appear to have connected flush. Just as Bell got back to a knee, referee Mark Nelson shockingly stopped the fight with protests from the challenger. The stoppage faced severe backlash from fans as Bell seemed to have gone down from exhaustion rather than the impact of Mason’s shot.
Referee’s shocking stoppage overshadows Abdullah Mason’s title defense
The boxing world has hardly healed from Rico Verhoeven’s controversial stoppage loss against Oleksander Usyk. Verhoeven seemed to be en route to a monumental upset win while challenging Usyk for the heavyweight title this past May. However, Usyk turned the tables late in the fight and dropped Verhoeven in the 11th round.
While Verhoeven returned to his feet, Usyk followed up with another flurry that mostly connected on the former kickboxing champion’s guard. However, referee Mark Lyson bizarrely stopped the fight with a second left in the stanza and Verhoeven still standing.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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