Olympic gold medallist Galal Yafai showed his amateur class in his first fight as a professional boxer stopping Carlos Vado Bautista in the fifth round of a ten-round contest. The fight was for the vacant WBC International Flyweight title and was on the undercard of Okolie v Cieslak at the O2 arena London (27,2,22). Yafai (29) weighed in 7 stone 13 with Bautista (25) who hard eon 10 and drewv1 out of 15 fights came in 7 stone 11 with Michael Alexander reffing.
Yafai who had won 42 of his 56 amateur fights showed from the first bell he was levels above his opponent going to the head, body like a veteran pro. Bautista looked shell-shocked from the first time Yafai contacted and seemed to go into survival mode straight away. Bautista rallied a bit in the second but Yafia took his shots well and continued to pick his shot well and break his opponent down. Yafai took his time and kept the pressure on banging in some nice combinations in the third and fourth. The end came in the fifth when Yafai put Bautista down with a right hand, as Bautista got up Yafai gestured to the ref that his corner had thrown the towel in and the ref stopped the fight 2 minutes 11 seconds into the fifth round.
Dexter’s Thought’s
Congratulations to Galal Yafai on an impressive debut against a fighter with a positive record. Matchroom seems to have a lot of faith in him putting him in a 10 round title fight straight away. He is now the owner of a WBC International Flyweight title which gives him a ranking and you can definitely see him fighting for big titles soon. I have to say he looked at home in the 8oz gloves as seemed to pace himself well, I’m sure with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom behind him he is destined to follow in his brothers' footsteps and win big title. The Column looks forward to seeing out again soon on DAZN.