Daniele Scardina retained his IBF International super middleweight title with a classy unanimous decision victory over Alessandro Goddi at the Allianz Cloud in Milan, Italy, on Friday.
Judges scored the 10-round bout 98-92, 96-94 and 96-94 for "King Toretto," who was making his first title defense since beating Henri Kekalainen for the belt last March.
Scardina (17-0, 14 KOs) used his reach to keep Goddi (35-5-1, 17 KOs) at bay early, but Goddi worked to get past the jab and land on the inside. He got through on more than one occasion but to little effect.
In the fourth round, Scardina landed an uppercut that sent his opponent backward. The champion, who hails from Rozzano, Italy, but fights out of Miami, then began to wear down his Sicilian foe with perfectly placed jabs, body shots and overhand rights en route to the comfortable decision.
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Co-main event: Francesco Patera continues reign with sixth-round TKO of Paul Hyland Jr.
Patera made his second defense of the EBU European lightweight title and extended his unbeaten run to four fights since losing to Edis Tatli in December 2017.
Both men started at a frantic pace and traded hooks from the opening bell, with Patera (22-3, eight KOs) focusing mainly on the body. An accidental clash of heads at the end of the Round 1 caused cuts to Patera's right eye and the top of Hyland’s head.
Hyland looked to focus on the cut to Patera’s eye in the second round but left himself open to the counter, and Patera landed a right hand to score a knockdown with 10 seconds left in the round.
A low blow by Patera in the third round caused a short delay before the rapid pace continued. Hyland (20-2, seven KOs) gave it his all in the fourth but was reckless in his attack. Patera responded by showing his pedigree with an onslaught of hooks to the body.
The fight was temporarily halted in the fifth when Hyland slipped on water in the corner. Another low blow from Patera paused the action again in a round that never really got going until the last 10 seconds when a left hook to the liver dropped Hyland for the second time in the fight.
In the sixth, Hyland went down for the third time after another body shot, and it wasn’t long before the Belgian champ landed another to drop Hyland one last time. The referee called off the fight at 1:50 of the round.