IBF champ Commey shuts out Beltran
International Boxing Federation (IBF) lightweight champion, Richard, retained his title by stopping former WBO lightweight champion, Ray Beltran (36-9-1, 22 KOs), in the eighth round last Friday night at the Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, California.
The 32-year-old Commey started fast and Beltran, managed to hang in, however in the end, Commey’s power was too much for the weight-drained and aging Beltran.
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Ghana’s Commey (29-2, 26 KOs) dropped his Mexican opponent in the eighth round, having forced the Mexican to visit the canvass three times before the eighth round.
Indeed, Beltran was knocked down four times in the fight by the more fit, younger and stronger Ghanaian and on each occasion, showed courage by getting up to continue with the fight.
In the eighth round, the Ghanaian caught the Mexican with a left hook which forced him to the canvass again.
He got up and was ready to continue, but referee Eddie Hernandez Snr stopped the fight.
Before then, a clash of heads in the sixth round opened up a cut around the left eye of Beltran, who seemed to fully recover from the previous round. Commey's left eye was swelling up bad in the seventh.
The loss for the 38-year-old Beltran was his second in his last three fights. He lost to Jose Pedraza by a 12 round unanimous decision last August in a fight that he was dethroned as the WBO 135 pound champion.
Commey’s next fight date is yet to be decided, but the opponent could be the winner of the July 19 fight between Teofimo Lopez and Masayoshi Nakatani, which is an IBF eliminator.
