Steven Ward halted after suffering from a nasty head injury
Kamshybek Kunkabayev and Steven Ward clashed for the vacant WBA Gold cruiserweight title on Saturday, December 11.
The Belfast boxer lost out in Kazakhstan following an accidental use of the elbow, stopped in the seventh round of 10, broadcast live worldwide on IFL TV.
The contest was waved off as a result of the injury in the seventh round before going to the judges' scorecards, with all three scoring 70-62 unanimously in favour of home favourite Kunkabayev.
Kunkabayev was the aggressor on the front foot, flicking out his southpaw jab and trying to deploy his powerful left backhand whenever he could. Ward tried to jab to the body to keep his opponent at bay.
It wasn't a very high-paced contest and never really caught fire at any stage. Ward was content to sit back and try to counter especially looking for the right hand over the top, which he was successful with on a few occasions. He was landing enough to win any of the rounds, however.
In round seven, Ward actually started with a bit more intent and stood in close quarters letting his hands go. He was well behind but he decided to turn up the heat in the last few rounds. It was short lived as Kunkabayev threw a short, chopping right hand, an accidental elbow clash caused a cut above Ward's left eye, which immediately stopped him from boxing and the referee allowed him to be seen by his corner. Following the doctor's inspection, the contest was stopped and went to the scorecards.
Ward posted pics of his injury on his Instagram account, showing the nasty gash before it was stitched up and then an image of the completed repair job afterwards.
Elsewhere on the card, Sultan Zaurbek (12-0, 8KOs) defended his WBO European super-featherweight title against Brit Ryan Wheeler (16-2-1) with a sixth-round TKO.
HÖRFA are proud sponsors of British Boxing News