It was a close contest between Welterweight fringe contenders Vlad Panin (8-1, 4 KOs) and Benjamin Whitaker (13-4, 3 KOs).
Panin was the man on the hunt for much of the night. He stalked the shorter Whitaker as the latter decided to lay back and rely on his counter punching. For much of the contest, Whitaker’s plan worked. He landed more shots according to the final stats, but the judges went against those numbers entirely.
The scorecards at the end of the bout were as followed, 57-57 even and 58-56 for the remaining two judges in favor of Panin.