By Rick Reeno

Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino, Las Vegas - Yordanis Despaigne (9-1, 4KOs) defeated Edison Miranda (34-6, 29KOs) by way of a fifth round disqualification. Miranda was disqualified for repeated low blows.

They were feeling each other out at the start of the first, when Despaigne let his hands go and had Miranda on rocky legs in the final ten seconds.  They were trading big punches in the second round, at close range, with Despaigne getting the upper hand with several wicked hooks to the body. Miranda's defense was invisible. He was being cracked with every punch being thrown by Despaigne.

At the end of the second, it appeared that Miranda hit Despaigne with a low blow after the bell, and he was penalized a point.

When the third round began, Despaigne was hit with another hard low low. He was given time to recover and Miranda lost another point. They were going to toe once the fight restarted. Miranda looked better in spots, but he was still taking too many punches.

At one point in the fourth round, Miranda dropped his hands and did his best imitation of Ricardo Mayorga by allowing Despaigne to catch him with at least six or seven punches.

During the fifth round, Miranda caught Despaigne with another low blow and this time the referee called for a disqualification.

In a light heavyweight contest for the NABA title, Sergey Kovalev (16-0, 14KOs) stopped Douglas Otieno (23-7, 12KOs) in the second round. After an accumulation of punishment, Otieno went down in the second and he stayed on the mat for the full count. The fight was stopped at 2:39 of the second.