By Jody Kohn
In Western New York, there was also a big fight this weekend as U.S. light heavyweight kickboxing champion Amer Abdallah took on the European champion James Wallis in Lockport, NY. With a victory, Abdallah, the 5th ranked fighter in the world, who is trained by Jeff Mayweather, among others, would put himself in line for a shot at the world title.
Things didn’t get off to a great start on Friday, when Wallis missed weight by 8 pounds, but the sides worked things out, and the show would go on.
Amer gave us his take on what happened following the weigh in.
”Upon him coming in 8 lbs over the contracted weight I wasn’t happy. We had a private meeting and I looked him in the eyes and asked him directly why he was over. The travel, jet lag and change in environment shut his body down. I believed him. My team asked that he go out and lose as much as he could in the next 2 hours and come back to weigh in. I made a decision against the will of my top advisors to take the fight as is. I was confident enough in winning the fight & didn’t want anyone saying he was too weak, drained or anything like that. I went with my gut feelings on that one… In the end, we didn’t fine or penalize him. I just wanted to fight.”
The bout started somewhat tentatively, with not much happening in the first couple of rounds besides Abdallah chasing Wallis around the ring.
The third round saw things start to get more interesting, as Abdallah started to assert himself, catching Wallis with a kick to the head that really started to slow the Brit down.
The fourth through sixth rounds saw more of the same, with Abdallah more often than not getting the better of the exchanges.
However, in the seventh, he suffered a cut which could have potentially caused a problem for the hometown favorite.
As the fight entered the latter stages, Wallis lost a point following an illegal blow to the back. However, Abdallah did not seemed bothered by it, and both fighters shared a hug entering the tenth and final round.
The tenth was all Abdallah, as he dominated the round and ultimately the fight, as he earned a unanimous decision from the judges.
With the win, Abdallah improved his record to 15-0, and now has that world title shot in his sites.
“The WKA in an open letter last month told us after this win, it will line us up for a world title fight. So we won the fight, we have an Intercontinental title. The next step up is the world title, so we will sit back and watch the offers come in, and we will make a decision based on what comes in at this point,” Abdallah said.
