Wednesday Night Fights returned to Plant City, Florida yesterday evening with Radivoje Kalajdzic taking on Mickey Ellison in the main event at light heavyweight.
England’s Ellison came in as the away fighter coming off two British regional title victories. Saint Petersburg’s Kalajdzic came into the ring three fights undefeated since a world title failure against Artur Beterbiev.
It was a difficult night for Ellison, who eventually succumbed to an eighth round knockout defeat. Kalajdzic looked in control all evening working well behind his rangy jab. Kalajdzic started to let his go in the middle rounds with the ever-forward walking Ellison looking well below the standard of his opponent.
Ellison did his best to force the fight in his favour coming under big attacks all evening. He was on the verge of hitting the canvass at the end of the fifth round, a similar trend continued into the sixth. By the seventh round Ellison had left himself far too open on the attack, which resulted in a bloodied face for much of the fight, Kalajdzic was taking ample opportunity every time he made a mistake.
The Belgrade born American started the eighth round with serious intent, his ramrod jab was on the verge of stopping Ellison. At 1:30 in the round Kalajdzic landed a big right hand that sent his opponent tumbling to the canvass. Credit to the Englishman, who barely made it to his feet on the count of 9, for making it up in time. Kalajdzic was straight on Ellison with a combination that ended the fight with just over a minute to spare. The referee waved the fight off before the count.
Kalajdzic improves his record to 28-2 (20 KOs), with Ellison’s moving to 14-5 (5 KOs).
On the undercard William Foster III (16-0, 10 KOs) claimed the WBA Fedecentro super featherweight title with a ninth round TKO victory over Misael Lopez (14-4, 5 KOs). Jonas Sultan (19-6, 11 KOs) and Dominic Valle (7-0, 5 KOs) both got decision victories to open the broadcast.
Wednesday Night Fights returns in less than two-weeks time on September 20th from Plant City. Batyrzhan Jukembayev (20-1, 16 KOs) collides with Hugo Alberto Roldan (22-1-1, 7 KOs) at super lightweight, Clay Waterman (11-0, 8 KOs) squares off with Kareem Hackett (11-0, 6 KOs) for the WBA Inter-Continental light heavyweight title and Lester Martinez takes on Lionell Thompson (22-5, 12 KOs) at 168 pounds.
