Takam wins fight during Pandemic
Cameroonian heavyweight Carlos Takam defeated Jerry Forrest by unanimous decision on Thursday night in the main event of the Top Rank fight card inside the “Bubble” at the MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas.
Takam (39-5-1) took the fight as a replacement for Jarrell Miller after “Big Baby” failed another drug test before a scheduled fight. Takam won the fight after 10 rounds with the judges giving him the decision with scores of 96-94, 98-92 and 97-93.
Along with taking the fight on short notice, Takam was also dealing with the loss of his father, which weighed on him, as one would expect, coming into this fight. “”My father passed away a week ago, so I came into the fight with a heavy heart. It may not have been a spectacular knockout, but most importantly, we got the win.”
Speaking about the victory, Takam said “We took this fight on short notice, but the opportunity on ESPN was too big to pass up. We knew we could beat him regardless”
“The preparation for this fight was not easy,” the 39-year old Takam admitted to Bernardo Osuna after the bout. “I was supposed to fight June 14 veruss Rivas but Mr Rivas could not fight because he had an injury. My promoter (Joe DeGuardia, Star Boxing) called me and said he had a fight for me.
Takam led in every statistical category measured by Compubox as he landed 106 of his 455 punches including 30 body punches for a 23% connection rate,
“I want to get me Oscar Rivas,” Takam said when asked who he would want to fight next. “I want anyone in the top five at heavyweight or a world title shot if that materializes.”
A shot at the top five may be out of the cards for Takam as he gets older but anything can happen in boxing and for a seasoned veteran who has suffered four of his five losses against Anthony Joshua, Joseph Parker, Alexander Povetkin and Dereck Chisora, the Cameroonian has amassed a great amount of respect from boxing fans, promoters and fighters around the world.
