Rances Barthelemy becomes two-weight world champion

Rances Barthelemy defeated Denis Shafikov on points to claim the vacant IBF lightweight title in Las Vegas.

The Cuban claimed his 24th straight win with scores of 119-109, 116-112 and 116-112 to become a two-weight world champion.

Russian southpaw Shafikov started strongly, throwing punches from all angles, but suffered a bad cut over his right eye in the seventh round.

Blood flowed from the cut in the eighth round but Shafikov was allowed to continue following a check of the injury from the ring doctor.

However, Barthelemy, who enjoyed a height and reach advantage, stepped up his attack and targeted the Russian's eye to claim the belt vacated by Mickey Bey in July.

"There were moments where I was trapped into my style of fighting. It took me a minute to adjust to Shafikov's style and exchange punches with him," said Barthelemy. "I'm really happy with the number of punches I was able to get off.

"I was really impressed with Shafikov's warrior style," the Cuban added. "He never gave up even after getting hurt with punches that were affecting his fight. That really caught me by surprise and also that he was able to last the whole fight. The fact that he continued really says something about him as a fighter."

Barthelemy, who vacated the IBF super-featherweight title to move up in weight, said before the bout he wanted the lightweight crown to be the second of "four or five" titles in different weight classes.

"That's my ultimate goal," he said.

For Shafikov, who fell to 36-2-1 with 19 knockouts, it was another defeat in a world title bid. In his only prior world title fight, he dropped a unanimous decision to Miguel Vazquez.