No he didn't. Rewatch the fight. Round 1 was 50/50 maybe slightly in favor of Zhan. Zhan landed a 2 good left hands, a combination and some body shots that's about it. He got outboxed most of the fight. It went nearly 4 and Ajagba won at least 3 of those rounds This content is protected
Yes, that sounds about right - and what did Ajagba land? Not that easy to tell but it looks like he landed nothing that was less than partially blocked. Zhan lost round 2 because he spent half of it eating low blows, and necessarily lost round 3 because there were 2 point deductions. He still did good work when his balls got to breathe for a bit.
Numerous jabs to the body, glancing rights in round 3, outboxed him in round 2 along with hurting him, and outworked him on the inside in round 4. The video is right there. Ajagba did more consistent work even if some shots were half blocked. He continuously beat and got around Kossobutskiy's high guard
First vid I've seen of this fight. Initial reaction of many here was that Zhan was getting beat badly and decided to get Efe back with crotch shots... to hell w/ getting DQd. That's not what I saw. Didn't the ref did warn Efe first? As the fight continued it was looking like ref bias. Efe was no choir boy, but his low blows were not as blatant. I think after the ref took 2 points away from Zhan (which was excessive) in the 3rd, he knew he wasn't going to get treated fairly. Weak job by the ref, or maybe he did his job. This was after the Usyk-DD fight. More BS - one of the commentators said that East Euro fighters don't like body punches. Not only biased "analysis" but also based on a very small sample size
Chan quit due y to I the low blows Agaba was being allowed to throw. Can’t blame him. Not sure Zhan could beat him though.
There's a clear distinction to be made here. Most of Efe's shots than strayed low, were clearly intended to be legal rights many of which were being deflected into the beltline by Zhan. Which is something that Usyk has a tendency to do as well. Whereas the low blows Zhan was landing were clear as day spiteful intentional ball shots.
Whilst I completely understand the point you and others are making, I think if the follow through of your blocked punch takes your fist below my belt line more than a handful of times in one round, it's going to feel pretty spiteful and intentional to my nutts. 10+ times in round 2? I think that is on the referee to put a stop to that, Ajagba certainly wasn't going to off his own volition - he threw some ridiculous low blows himself, which continuously went unpunished. But sure, regarding your distinction, I overall accept it, but I think it is fair to make a further one: Zhan was the belt holder, Ajagba was the challenger. Should the visiting champion not expect relatively fair and even adjudication? The referee basically set the rules at the start, and only enforced them on one fighter, the champion. Which is why I consider this a TR smash and grab job. Smash the balls and grab the belt.
But he wasn't smashing the balls now was he? He was smashing the beltline. Zhan was uppercutting the ever loving **** out of his testicles however. The only thing being smashed and grabbed, was Efe's nuts, by Zhan.
Whatever the case may be about Zhan's boxing ability, his mental state or the precise nature of Ajagba's borderline shots/low blows, Zhan did a good job of turning the fight into a farce and sparing himself needless punishment. Perhaps he gets another opportunity off the back of this, deserved or not. Probably more likely than if he'd just accepted it. Golota got a rematch with Bowe and a fight with Lewis off the back of two less excusable DQ losses. I prefer that to a fighter who allows himself to be a victim of illegal tactics and a biased referee. Povetkin may have got a rematch with Wlad had he fouled him back to the point of disqualification. And even if he didn't get a rematch, he would have turned Wlad's title defence into a complete farce, Povetkin's reputation as a fighter would have increased or at least not fallen, he would have saved himself a lot of unnecessary punishment and got his own back to some degree.
Ajagba hit him in the belt line, the hip, the groin. He was quite liberal with his placements over the course of three rounds. He got his first warning for a very low blow mid way through the second round. It was another very low blow right in front of the ref in the third that caused the nut shot retaliation from Zhan. So yeah, Ajagba was also working the speed bag at times. That one's for you, @Serge
You can add Kovalev to that. Fan's sympathy over the Ward loss didn't fix his record. Or give Lomachenko a record breaking win over Salido.