Adam Azim scored a dominant victory over Sergey Lipinets to win their Wembley Arena clash inside nine rounds.
Azim was taking a key step up against the Kazakh, the first former world champion the Briton had fought in his career.
Lipinets has held the IBF super-lightweight world title and boxed elite operators like Mikey Garcia, Jaron Ennis and Lamont Peterson.
At 35 years old, Lipinets had more than a decade’s seniority on Azim. But for all the Kazakh’s experience of world-class boxing, Azim remained composed. He moved round the outside of the ring in their opening round, unhurried, as he jabbed into Lipinets.
Azim began to threaten with rapid left hooks, and scored to the body with firm punches. As Lipinets tried to close him down, Azim greeted the Kazakh with stern, accurate right.
Lipinets floored in the third round
Lipinets felt hard left hooks in the second round and Azim backed them up with another cross. He tenderised the body again that round and began to establish his command of the contest.
A jab whistled through between Lipinets’ gloves. That spurred a response. Lipinets chased after Azim, reaching for him with lefts. But he couldn’t pin the Slough stylist down.
A right uppercut powered through from Azim, connecting cleanly. The Briton’s right hook caught Lipinets’ glove but a straighter right found the chin.
A breakthrough came shortly afterwards in the third round. Azim smacked Lipinets off his feet with a clean single punch, with Azim, on the retreat, uncorking an excellent left hook counterpunch.
Azim controls the action against Lipinets
Lipinets landed heavily on the canvas. But the tough veteran campaigner beat the count.
Determined, Lipinets still came forward in the next round and lobbed his right into Azim’s chin. A right hook also caught him out, but Azim didn’t let it ruffle him.
His left hook though did stray low. The Briton recognised that and, to his credit, didn’t follow up with an attack when Lipinets was clearly in distress. Referee Steve Gray still deducted a point from Azim.
Continuing to marshal the action, Azim teed up a long right uppercut with his left hook. Then there was a pause in the action due to another accidental low blow.
Azim would reel off a superb jab-left hook combination. His right hook whipped down and Lipinets felt the full force of an uppercut as he blundered onto it.
Low blows strayed into Azim’s work
Azim stood his ground, working in the pocket at close range. Hefty overarm rights still punished Lipinets. He teed off on the Kazakh and marked up the former champion.
But Azim was still careless on occasion and another low blow saw him deducted another point in the seventh round.
A low blow from Lipinets, perhaps in answer, landed in the eighth round and the two opened up on each other afterwards, trading uppercuts.
Azim was winning the exchanges, his shots bursting through. A brace of uppercuts from Azim landed flush and Lipinets reeled back.
The right tipped the Kazakh off balance and Lipinets fought back desperately to fend Azim off before the bell rang to end the eighth.
Azim stops Lipinets in the ninth round
Lipinets waded into a blizzard of uppercuts at the start of the next round.
Azim rocked him on his heels. The Kazakh swayed, his hands momentarily dropped and referee Steve Gray halted him on his feet 33 seconds into the stanza.
‘I didn’t even know I’d hit him’
After a dominating win over Sergey Lipinets, Adam Azim called out Dalton Smith.
“My performance was great. I could have dropped the pace a bit in the earlier rounds, but Shane [McGuigan, his trainer] goes: ‘Keep calm, you’re going to catch him,'” Azim said afterwards.
“For the knockdown I didn’t even know I’d hit him. That was just so quick. I had to be patient. To be world class you have to be patient to do your work.
“This is an emotional moment for the team, the family and all the loved ones.”
‘Dalton Smith – you ain’t that good!’
Azim did throw down the gauntlet to British rival Dalton Smith.
“I’ll fight whoever my team suggest, but do you know what… Dalton Smith, you’d better be watching mate – because you ain’t that good, my friend,” he declared.
“The guy you’ve been fighting in your last fight, he ain’t all that. Trust me, I’m coming baby.
“It’s still marinating, but when I do fight him I’m going to teach him a lesson.”
