Kayode, Latif

Latif Kayode made his debut in the professional ring in the USA in the heavy weight category. In August 2008, he defeated the staunch American Jornimen Mike Miller on points. Latif defeated subsequent rivals by knockout. In 2010, he moved to the first heavy weight category.

First Heavyweight

On August 6, 2010, Kayode won the North American WBO title by knocking out Puerto Rican Alfredo Escaleru Jr. (18-2-1). Latif then prematurely defeated the Colombian Epifanio Medosa, having won the NABF North American title.

In December 2010, Kayode knocked out American Ed Perry (18-4-2). Then the Nigerian defended his titles against the American Nicholas Iannuzzy (16-1).

In 2011, Kayode defeated two more highly rated boxers on points - promising Americans Matt Godfrey (20-2) ^[1] and Felix Koru Jr. (22-5-2).

After these victories, Kayode rose high in the ratings of various boxing organizations and met in the ring with the legendary American boxer Antonio Tarver in the fight for the IBO world title . Kayode defiantly behaved before the fight and in a duel began to aggressively attack on Antonio. The first half of the fight, Kayode acted more confidently, but then Tarver turned the tide of the battle and conducted more accurate attacks. After 12 rounds, the judges split the decision by a separate decision. According to many experts, Tarver was more convincing in the battle and deserved to win. Tarver was later convicted of doping and the fight was recognized as failed ^{[2] [3]} .

In December 2012, Kayode announced his intention to move to the heavy weight category ^[4] .

Heavyweight

In December 2013, Kayode held the first fight after returning to heavyweight, and knocked out the American Travis Fulton in it, then in January 2014 he won an early victory on Jont Wilson.

On September 11, 2014 in Las Vegas, a duel was held for the interim WBA world heavyweight title between undefeated 35-year-old Cuban Luis Ortiz (21-0) and 31-year-old Nigerian Latif Cayode (20-0) . Already half a minute after the start of the battle, Ortiz sent his opponent to the knockdown with a two-hit combination, which ended in a blow to the right. At the end of the first round, Kayode turned out to be sandwiched in a corner and missed some heavy punches, his back against the ropes. At that moment, when Kayode tried to respond to Ortiz’s attack, the referee decided to stop the fight, fixing the Cuban premature victory. Louis Ortiz won the WBA Interim World Championship title , inflicting Kayode the first defeat in his professional career ^[5] . On January 13, 2015, it became known that Ortiz was deprived of a belt for using a prohibited substance (nandrolone), and the result of the battle was canceled ^[6] .

Return to First Heavyweight

• Kayode, Latif (eng.) - professional boxing statistics for BoxRec
• Kayode page on boxnews.com.ua
• News on the site allboxing.ru