PIROG WINS EASILY BUT UNSPECTACULARLY IN HIS FIRST WBO TITLE DEFENSE, by Pavel Yakovlev

(March 26, 2011) Dmitry Pirog retained his WBO world middleweight title in Ekaterinburg, Russia, today with a dominant but unimpressive decision over Javier Francisco Maciel. Pirog controlled the action throughout with probing left jabs, well-placed body punches, sneaky uppercuts to the head, and by using airtight defense. Nonetheless, Pirog’s performance was inferior to that he displayed last summer, when he won his title with a spectacular knockout over Danny Jacobs. The Russian champion’s timing seemed slightly off, and his punches lacked their usual snap. Most likely Pirog was ring rusty from not having fought in the eight months since beating Jacobs, and thus did not display his full ability against Maciel.   This correspondent scored the bout 118-110 for Pirog, who was deducted a point in the tenth for illegally pushing with his shoulder at close quarters. The judges’ cards seemed inappropriately close, favoring the champion by margins o...