Bogere Returns With UD and Krael vs. Sakai Battle Ends In A Draw for Sin City Showdown

‎’LION’ BOGERE PICKS UP ONE-SIDED POINTS WIN OVER RODRIGUEZ

‎It’s been a long 14-month layoff for ‘The Lion’ Sharif Bogere (30-1 w/20 KOs) but, he triumphantly returned to the squared circle tonight with a unanimous decision victory over Mexico’s Jose Rodriguez (23-10-1 w/13 KOs) as they headlined the Mayweather Promotions card from the Sam’s Town Live arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

His leg surgery behind him as he is now healed and healthy, Bogere cruised to a clear cut points win with scores of 100-90 on all three judge’s scorecards. The man known as ‘The Lion’ ‎sunk his teeth into the scheduled 10 round affair coming forward and maintaining his workman-like approach as he jabbed-clinched, hook and circled as well as countered punched his man all night. ‎Rodriguez stood in front of Bogere and was willing to trade but the slower handed Mexican warrior lacked the speed and pop needed to force Bogere to respect him much. The Las Vegas native boxed well on the inside as well as from distance keeping his man at bay with his jab and using it to set up hooks and overhand rights. By the second half of the fight Bogere had figured out his foe pretty well and slipped any trouble coming his way as he ducked and rolled with the punches.

The only real damage that slid his way came in the form of multiple head butts by Rodriguez. The worst causing a bad cut over the left eye of Bogere, right on his eyebrow bone. He noticeably blinked allot more from the irritated eye yet did not let this hinder his performance as he pitched a shut out in front of a happy crowd at Sam’s Town Casino and Gambling Hall.

Speaking to Bogere after the fight he calmly mentioned that ‘it’s nothing new, i’ve been here before’‎ regarding the bad cut. He also told Boxeomundial.com that it required 5 stitches. As for a return date his manager chimed in letting us know that he would have returned in a few short weeks but due to the cut, “not until January of 2018”. They’ll rest and come back stronger and Bogere seemed at peace and happy with the performance, very grateful to be back in the ring after a long layoff and surgery.

KRAEL AND SAKAI THRILL CROWD IN PHONE BOOTH WAR

The co-main event of the night was only scheduled for 8 rounds ‎but the welterweight battle between Cameron Krael (12-12-3) and Shoki Sakai (22-7-2) resembled a championship match-worth of action. There was maybe a handful of clinches and rarely a slow spot in an otherwise action-packed fight. Krael started off strong as he worked angles and combinations on his foe, switching stances along the way as he drilled his man with a straight left in the southpaw stance or a clubbing 1-2 from the conventional stance for the first 3-4 rounds of the match. The look confued Mexico’s Sakai who kept getting nailed by the left hand or jab of his man and made no adjustments, his right eye getting badly swollen and needing allot of attention from his cut man as the rounds progressed.

This probably motivated Sakai to rally in the second half of the fight. There, he stood in the pocket and traded looping left hands, mean uppercuts and a chopping right hand that landed flush. Krael made the mistake of pulling out of the pocket with his guard at his waist leaving him open to his foe’s counters. ‎Sakai reached and lunged his way to racking up points and when they stepped right back into their toe-to-toe phone booth battle he gave as good as he got during those explosive 8 rounds. When the fight came to and end the entire arena clapped in appreciation and stood in order to show gratitude to the young warriors. Even promoter and future Hall of Famer, Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather could be seen standing up and giving pointers to Krael from his ringside seat.

In the end one judge had it 77-75 for Cameron ‘Suave’ Krael and the remaining two saw it 76-76 and 76-76, poetically making the match a majority draw. A finish that was adequate seeing as how no man deserved to lose in what was a fantastic brawl featuring two men trading big punches, eating nasty uppercutes on the inside and landing combinations at random.

Following the fight we spoke to Krael who directly told us that he is fine with a rematch even though he , “felt he won the fight” as his trainer added, “we could do a rematch or move on to bigger names, we got options”. Whatever
Team Suave does it will surely be worth watching if he continues to put on fan pleasing performances like that.