Frenchman Nicholas Salsi won his fourth fight in a row to capture the vacant World Boxing Federation (WBF) Eurasia Cruiserweight title on Thursday, January 25, in Grenoble, only a few kilometres from his home-town Pont-de-Claix.
Salsi (36), who improved his record to 9-4-1 (3), faced game 22-year-old Georgian Paata Aduashvili, 24-21-3 (16), and impressed a nice crowd at the Salle Malherbes, winning his first professional title by fifth round technical knockout.
Aduashvili came out strong and fast in the first round, but was unlucky to get an eight-count after what seemed to be a slip when his feet tangled with Salsi´s. Rounds two and three were fairly even, with both men having their moments, and it looked as if it would be a long, hard night for the local favourite.
But in round four Salsi landed a clean body-shot to score a genuine knock-down. Aduashvili beat the count of referee Stephane Nicolo, but he continued to leave himself open to body-punches. Salsi picked up on this, and floored him again with a beautiful left hook to the body in round five.
Again the visitor beat the count, but not long after Salsi connected with a right hand to the chin to score the fourth knock-down of the fight. While Aduashvili bravely got back on his feet, referee Nicolo had seen enough and wisely waved the fight off. Time of stoppage was 2:30 of round five.
The fight headlined a show promoted by Patrick Mallaizee.