By Mark Vaz

In a co-promotion between Ken Casey’s Murphys Boxing and Danny Kelly Promotions, both Abraham Nova and Charles Foster carried the show, emerging victoriously in the main event and co-feature on the Murphys half of the 5 bout Sunday evening card at the Club Royale in Boston.

In the main event, Albany, NY’s Abraham Nova, 130, remained unbeaten at 12-0, 9 KOs with a hard fought decision over Silver Springs, MD’s Sulaiman Segawa, 128.4, 11-2, 4 KOs over 10 highly entertaining rounds.

Nova, showing cracking power throughout the first half of the bout, was able to cut the distance on the slick boxing Segawa, landing solid shots to the head and body while blocking a good portion of Segawa’s combinations with his gloves. Segawa seemed to find a good rhythm through the mid rounds, keeping Nova at bay with a good jab and lateral movement, but allowed Nova back inside in the last two rounds, giving Nova the win 96-94 twice and 97-93 once. It was an important developmental fight for Nova, as Segawa has become somewhat of an upset specialist, beating several undefeated fighters in their hometowns. Nova accentuated the evening by also bringing home the WBA-NABA Jr Lightweight Title along the way.

Hartford, CT’s Charles Foster, 174, retained his WBA-NABA light heavyweight title with a competitive one sided decision over the power punching Israel Duffus, 175, originally from Panama City, now living in Los Angeles and fighting out of Freddy Roach’s Wild Card Gym.

Duffus, 19-5, 16 KOs, came out winging, loading up with bombs with both hands, but the clever Foster was able to avoid them and counter before tying his opponent up and walking him back to the ropes where he consistently landed a variety of shots to body and head, often from unpredictable angles.

Although it was often the swing and miss from Duffus that got the “ooh” from the crowd, it was the effective work and defense from Foster that earned him the decision at 100-90 across the board. Foster now stands at 17-0 and with three defenses of his title, will be elevating in the rankings and looks to close in on a title fight in the interesting light heavyweight division in 2019.