Hassan N'Dam vs Ryota Murata

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To achieve his greatest honor, N’Dam traveled over half of the Earth to the legendary Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo, to defeat local star Ryota Murata on Saturday in one of the bigger upsets and undeniably one of the most dubious results of 2017. N’Dam overcame a knockdown late in the fourth round to win on two of the three scorecards in Murata’s home country of Japan. The controversial victory enabled N’Dam to win the WBA world middleweight title. The Cameroon-born N’Dam (36-2, 21 KOs) won on the scorecards of Panama’s Gustavo Padilla (116-111) and Canada’s Hubert Earle (115-112), but American judge Raul Caiz Jr. scored the fight for Murata by a wide margin (117-110). The 31-year-old Murata, a gold medalist at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and the WBA’s No. 2-ranked contender, lost for the first time as a pro (12-1, 9 KOs). N’Dam, who won the WBA Interim middleweight belt last December with a “Knockout of the Year” candidate against previously undefeated Alfonso Blanco, utilized his excellent footwork to avoid Murata's hard punches since the very first round. N’Dam, 33, moved well laterally, but his speed was ultimately not enough to avoid getting hit by the Japanese contender’s power blows, specifically by his right hands. France’s N’Dam landed his series of punches in return, but its effect was limited as Murata just shrugged them off to continue his march.