Bucharest, Romania – Adrian Diaconu held off Chris Henry to win a unanimous 12 –round decision to win the World Boxing Council Interim Light Heavyweight Championship in Diaconu’s home town.

Diaconu, 25-0, held off Henry, 21-1, to become the immediate challenger to WBC Champion Chad Dawson who must now make the fight or be stripped of the title.

RESULTS

WBC Interim Light Heavyweight Championship – 175 lbs.

Adrian Diaconu (Romania) Unanimous 12 Rd. Decision over Chris Henry (Texas, USA) 115-113, 115-113, 116-112

Jo Jo Dan (Romania) KO-3 over Raul Balbi (Argentina)

WBC Mediterranean Title-130 lbs.

Viorel Simion (Romania) Un. 10- Rd Dec. over Rudy Encarnacion (Spain)

Silvio Branco (Italy) Un. 8 Rd. Decision over Abdelkader Benzinizer (France)

Bogdan Dinu (Romania) 4 Rd. Un. Decision over Stephane Tessier (Canada)

Christian Hodorogea (Romania) Un. 4-Rd. Decision Astencio Cerisuela (Spain)

Carl Handy (USA) 6 -Rd Un. Dec. over Vasily Andryanov (Russia)

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Chris Henry Quotes from Romania

Chris Henry, of Houston, Texas, was defeated Saturday night by #1 World Boxing Council Contender Adrian Diaconu in Bucharest, Romania by a unanimous decision, in the 175 lbs. limit Interim Light Heavyweight Championship.

The scoring was: 115-113 Oren Shellenberger (Texas); 115-113 Victor Panin (Russia); 116-112 Mark Green (United Kingdom).

Henry, 21-1, went into the fight as the #3 WBC Contender but was not given much of a chance to win the fight but he almost pulled it out on the scorecards. WBC Executive VP Mauricio Sulaiman was very proud of his performance and hopes Henry continues to compete for WBC titles.

Chris Henry

“I congratulate Diaconu on the victory, but come on. He was holding me like a baby, ducking and grabbing me around my knees all night. I can’t believe they allowed him to get away with it. The referee (Michael Griffin) of Canada was way overmatched, definitely not strong enough to handle the two of us, and just let the local guy (Diaconu) do whatever he wanted to do. I’m sure his knees are all scraped up. Even the fans turned on him after a while.

“The promoter, Chris Ganescu and his staff, treated us well here and we became acclimated to the time difference. We really liked it hear but I was planning on coming home with the WBC belt.

“I plan to stay busy, possibly defend my North American Boxing Federation title and generally be ready for another title fight. I did what I wanted to do in there, but I can’t fight two men at once.

“I had been inactive for eight months, and I had a little rust. But, Diaconu was off for 11 months. The lighter gloves affected me a little because I had been training with much bigger gloves, but that is not an excuse.

Ronnie Shields, Trainer of Chris Henry

I don’t have to be diplomatic like my fighter Chris Henry. Chris won this fight. He did enough to win tonight. We didn’t have to fly across the world into this guy’s hometown and partisan fans when we could have had a neutral location. However, Chris is a competitor and just wants to face a challenge.

The referee just wasn’t competent or fair. In the 10th Chris knocks Diaconu through the ropes and the ref doesn’t call a knockdown! Those two points right there cost us

Chris Henry Quotes – 2

the fight. All night long the guy was holding and wrapping his arms around anything he

could reach, mostly Chris’s knees. I respect Diaconu as a world class fighter, who
will certainly do anything to win, and that is why the referee has to be there to enforce the rules and warn these guys and take points away if necessary to get there attention so it won’t be tolerated.

All in all Chris handled this the way a mature young man should and this experience can only help him in the future.

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