Our winner by UD by scores of 96-93, 98-91, 98-91 — Sergey Lipinets! #PBConBounce pic.twitter.com/iKmPTl1fTg
— PBC (@premierboxing) October 31, 2015
The scheduled 10-round co-main event featured a pair of super lightweights with Lydell Rhodes (23-1-1, 11 KOs) matched against Sergey Lipinets (8-0, 6 KOs).
In a battle of east versus west, the bout remained a cold war for the first several rounds with both fighters having brief moments, but neither establishing dominance. Lipinets consistently pressed forward as the quick-fisted Rhodes flashed feints and combinations.
Rounds 6 and 7 consisted primarily of constant movement and mocking by Rhodes and determined, dogged pursuit by Lipinets but ultimately featured more posturing than substance.
In Round 8 the Russian found a home for a number of heavy shots which scored but did no substantial damage while Rhodes countered.
In Round 9 Lipinets appeared to hurt Rhodes with a body shot along the ropes and a thudding right to the head several moments later.
The assault continued through Round 10 and Rhodes again found himself in trouble several times. To make his matters worse, Rhodes also lost a point for holding.
The judges scored the decision unanimously in favor of Lipinets 96-93, 98-91 and 98-91.
After the fight, Rhodes was upset at the judges and stated that he felt he won the fight.
“The judging is what went wrong. I won this fight. I felt I controlled most of the fight until the last couple rounds,” said Rhodes.
Lipinets on the other hand was critical of his opponents style and also felt he won the fight.
“He ran too much. He didn’t want to fight. It’s very difficult to fight someone who doesn’t really want to fight. I was hurting him with every punch, but he was holding so much it wasn’t easy to finish him off. Plus he takes a good punch,” said Lipinets.
