‘Unfocused’ Perez narrowly avoids first defeat of career

Mike Perez narrowly avoided the first defeat of his career after a lacklustre performance that his trainer labelled as “unfocused”.

The 28-year-old heavyweight was fighting for the first time since his infamous bout against Magomed Abdusalamov in November which ended in the Russian undergoing brain surgery and succumbing to a stroke.

Perez escaped with a majority draw against the Cameroonian/French underdog Carlos Takam. Saturday’s ten-round fight was on the undercard of a HBO-televised light heavyweight bout between Jean Pascal and Lucian Bute at the Bell Center in Montreal which ended in a one-side win for Pascal before 20,000 fans.