ST. LOUIS, Missouri, 10 July 2006 — American Cory Spinks captured the International Boxing Federation junior middleweight championship here Saturday, edging Russian Roman Karmazin by a narrow 12-round majority decision.
Hometown hero Spinks, dethroned here 17 months ago as the undisputed world welterweight champion in his previous fight, was scored a 115-113 winner by two judges while the third saw the bout as a 114-114 draw.
“People didn’t believe in me but I always knew I could do it,” Spinks said. “There’s no quit in my heart. I never doubted my talent. I proved everybody wrong. I’m a champion once again.”
Southpaw Spinks improved to 35-3 while Karmazin fell to 34-2 with one draw.
Karmazin had not fought since claiming the crown a year ago and complained that referee Marty Nelson separated the fighters too soon after clinches, not allowing Karmazin to work with inside punches against Spinks.
“With this type of referee I could not have won that fight,” Karmazin said.
“Unfortunately it did take me until about the seventh round to figure out how to work with him. I was running around. He knew he was ahead after seven rounds and he had to stay on his feet. He was tough to catch running around.”
