Late Replacement Sergey Lipinets Beats Omar Figueroa Jr. In Eighth Round Stoppage
Sergey Lipinets took down Omar Figueroa Jr. in their fight this past weekend.
Figueroa Sr. ended his son’s fight Saturday night after Lipinets stopped Omar Jr. in a 12-round WBC super lightweight title eliminator. The fight took place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida and lasted for eight rounds.
Lipinets was a substitute for Adrien Broner, who had pulled out of the fight due to mental health issues.
Lipinets (17-2-1, 13 knockouts) win over Figueroa Jr. (28-3-1, 19 KOs) caused him to suffer his third-straight loss.
“I did well considering that he caught me with a good punch early on,” Lipinets said.
“I had a good fighter in front of me. My hat’s off to Omar for being a warrior. The punch that rocked Omar is the punch that my trainer and I have been working on for a long time. He came at me and it was the perfect time to use it.
“I was too focused on protecting myself. I was concerned about him answering my punches, but it was not my job to stop the fight; 140 is my weight. I came back. I’m back.”
Out of total punches, Lipinets percentage was higher with 172/517 (33%) total punches to Figueroa’s 44/475 (9%) total punches.
Between the seventh and eighth rounds, Omar Sr. warned his son that he would end the fight.
“I’m very disappointed about the outcome,” Omar Jr. said.
“My team and I worked so hard during this training camp. My body has reached its limit. I’ve been doing this for 27 years and my body has finally said enough. I’m just sorry I’ve disappointed the fans.
“The change of opponents didn’t affect me. I think I’ve reached the end of the line here in boxing. It occupied my life for 27 years. My body just gave up. It didn’t respond.
“… Lipinets was tough, he’s a tough fighter. He’s really strong and he came to fight. My body just didn’t respond. Not much else to say.
“I have no idea what’s next. I’m working on a couple things. I have a book that I’m working on, and maybe I’ll be able to give people a little more insight on my life. There’s so much more that’s part of who I am, and maybe that’s part of why it came to such an abrupt end like this.”