Mohammed Alakel easily handled Jiaming Li to remain unbeaten before his hometown fans Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi prospect dropped Li toward the end of the fifth round, hurt him on several other occasions and shut him out on all three scorecards in a one-sided, six-round lightweight contest that capped the non-pay-per-view portion of “
The Ring IV: Night of the Champions” card at ANB Arena. Judges Nawaf Almohaimeed, Mike Fitzgerald and Leszek Jankowiak all scored the fight 60-53 for Riyadh’s Alakel.
Alakel, 21, advanced to 7-0, though he went the distance for the sixth time since he turned pro. China’s Li, 34, dropped to 7-6 (4 KOs), but he avoided what could’ve been his second knockout defeat in the past 2½ months.
Earlier Saturday night, Pius Mpenda provided more resistance than anticipated and held undefeated Mexican super middleweight Julio Porras to a six-round draw.
All three judges – Mike Fitzgerald, Pavel Hynek and Mike Ross – scored their competitive contest identically, 57-57. Tanzania’s Mpenda (11-4-2, 5 KOs) rallied in the second half of their bout, when he landed numerous right hands on Porras (13-0-1, 9 KOs).
In the previous fight, Riyadh-based junior lightweight Sultan Almohammed stopped India’s Umesh Chavan in the first round of a scheduled four-rounder.
The 17-year-old Almohammed improved to 2-0 and produced his first knockout as a pro. Chavan (3-2-1) was knocked out for the first time.
Almohammed hurt Chavan with a left to the body with just under a minute to go in the opening round. Chavan turned his back on Almohammed after absorbing that shot, which caused referee Edward Collantes to stop the action.
A fighter even younger than Almohammed, Juan El Guerito de Tepito, shut out Barker Ssewanyana on all three scorecards in the opening bout on the card.
The 16-year-old Mexican bantamweight made his pro debut against Uganda’s Ssewanyana (1-2-1), whose awkwardness helped prevent El Guerito de Tepito from knocking him out. Mexico City’s El Guerito de Tepito won by the same score, 40-35, on all three cards because Ssewanyana had a point deducted for holding.
Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.