Vijender Singh retains Asia-Pacific title

Vijender Singh outslugged his Chinese opponent Zulpikar Maimaitiali in a close bout to retain the WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight title on Saturday.

It was double delight for the fans as Vijender also snatched the WBO Oriental Super Middleweight title from the Chinese, who is nine years younger to him. It was the 32-year-old's ninth successive win in his professional career.

In front of a partisan crowd, Vijender gave an exhibition of his class during the slugfest, and his oodles of experience came in handy during 10 intense rounds.

"I didn't expect him to fight so well and last the distance," Vijender said after the bout. 

Using his height and



greater reach to good effect, Vijender most of the time had the better of exchanges with his straigt ones and hooks landing flush on Zulpikar, whose blows didn't have the desired effect.

The only round when Zulpikar looked a bit assertive was the third one when he went after the Indian, who again showed his fleet-footedness to evade the punches.

Earlier, Beijing Olympics quarterfinalist Akhil Kumar made a perfect start to his professional career with a technical knock-out of Australia's Ty Gilchrist in the welterweight category. 

Jitender Kumar also marked his debut with a technical knock-out win over Thanet Likhitkamporn in the lightweight category.