By Victor Kanayo
Nigeria’s fighter Efe Ajagba on Sunday defeated an unbeaten boxer-puncher Stephan Shaw.
Two fights after his one-sided, unanimous-decision defeat to Frank Sanchez, Ajagba won what mostly amounted to a jabbing contest against previously undefeated Stephan Shaw by unanimous decision.
Nigeria’s Ajagba was the aggressor for almost all 10 rounds, whereas Shaw seemed reluctant to engage with the hard-hitting heavyweight contender in a main event ESPN broadcast from Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York.
Judges Eric Marlinski, John McKaie and Don Trella scored their uneventful encounter identically, 96-94 for Ajagba.
According to CompuBox, Ajagba landed 33 more punches overall than Shaw (111-of-430 to 78-of-341). CompuBox credited Ajagba for landing more jabs (90-of-350 to 48-of-237) and Shaw for landing more power punches (30-of-104 to 21-of-80).
Ajagba (17-1, 13 KOs), a 2016 Olympian, won a second straight fight since Sanchez beat him. Cuba’s Sanchez (21-0, 14 KOs) dropped Ajagba in the seventh round and comfortably out-pointed him on all three scorecards in a 10-rounder that was part of the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder pay-per-view undercard in October 2021 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Ajagba underwent surgery on both elbows following his loss to Sanchez. Healthier and more confident, he promised he would box better against Shaw than he did versus Sanchez.
St. Louis’ Shaw, meanwhile, was unable to capitalise on the biggest opportunity of his nine-year professional career.
Without hesitation, Shaw (18-1, 13 KOs, 1 NC) took this fight against Ajagba on less than one month’s notice.
Ajagba was supposed to fight Colombian contender Oscar Rivas (28-1, 19 KOs), but Rivas suffered a detached retina while training last month.
Shaw was already training to battle Italian prospect Guido Vianello (10-1-1, 9 KOs), who was stopped due to a cut by Jonnie Rice (16-6-1, 11 KOs) in the seventh round of ESPN’s co-feature Saturday night.
By the time the 10th round of the main event began, it seemed clear that Ajagba and Shaw would go the distance.
Ajagba’s right hand knocked Shaw backward with just over a minute remaining in the 10th and final round.
Ajagba’s right hand backed Shaw into the ropes with 1:25 to go in the 10th round.
