ITALY: BRITAIN'S KEN BUCHANAN POUNDS USAI OF ITALY TO DEFEAT IN VIOLENT EUROPEAN LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE BOUT.

Record ID: 647929

  • Title: ITALY: BRITAIN'S KEN BUCHANAN POUNDS USAI OF ITALY TO DEFEAT IN VIOLENT EUROPEAN LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE BOUT.
  • Date: 26th July 1975
  • Summary: 1. GV ZOOM INTO SV Start of final round, with Buchanan (white shorts) emerging from right hand corner and attacking from start, referee intervenes and gives Italian a standing count 0.51 2. SV (SAME SHOT) Fight resumes, Buchanan continues to attack until towel is thrown into ring. 1.00 3. SV (SAME SHOT) Referee stops fight, Usai collapses in corner and is helped to feet, crowd whistles, Buchanan embraced by his second 1.25 4. SV Buchanan leaves ring 1.33 5. LV Italian receiving kiss of life in ring 1.38 Initials BB/2200 TH/MR/BB/2130 SPORT: BOXING Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 10th August 1975 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CAGLIARI, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVA6LQD9I0V7OHNJKJ0QYD6FIYKM
  • Story Text: Britain's Ken Buchanan retained his European Lightweight title last nigh (25 July), pounding Italian challenger Giancarlo Usai to defeat in the 12th round of their scheduled 15-round contest.

    But as Usai's seconds threw in the towel to save their man from further punishment, the partisan crowd went berserk, bombarding the ring with cans and bottles. The champion's father Tom Buchanan -- one of his second -- was injured by flying glass from a bottles.

    Simultaneously, Usai had collapsed in his corner and had to be given the kiss of life. He was taken to hospital, where his condition was today said to be improving.

    The crowd's anger was made more intense because, during the earlier rounds, Buchanan had looked in serious trouble as Usai repeatedly caught him with a dangerous right hook.

    Then in the 11th round, Buchanan shook the Italian with a thudding body blow, then pinned him in to the ropes with a flurry of hooks.

    Early in the following round, the tottering Italian took a mandatory eight count, and Buchanan was moving in for the kill when Isai's corner threw in the towel.

    SYNOPSIS: The final stages of a gruelling, hard fought European Lightweight title fight in Sardinia on Friday night, with the champion -- Britain's Ken Buchanan, in the white shorts -- doing all the attacking against challenger Giancarlo Usai of Italy. In the earlier rounds, Usai had punished the champion with his vicious right hook and had piled up what looked like a winning points lead. But in the eleventh round, Buchanan caught Usai with a fierce body blow and a series of devastating hook. Early in this round -- the twelfth -- the groggy Italian had to take a standing count of eight.

    As Buchanan surged forward to finish the fight, the Italian's seconds threw in the towel to signal the end of the fight.

    But that wasn't the end of the rough stuff. Usai promptly collapsed in his corner, while outraged Italian fans started pelting the ring with bottles and cans before Buchanan could be officially declared the winner. One of Buchanan's seconds -- his father, Tom -- was badly gashed by flying glass.

    As Buchanan fled from the ring, his Italian challenger had collapsed again. Usai received the kiss of life in the ring, and was later taken to hospital where his condition was said to be improving.
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