Souleymane Cissokho survived a late knockdown to defeat Kieron Conway by a split decision in a 10-round junior middleweight bout on the Canelo Alvarez-Billy Joe Saunders card Saturday in Arlington, Texas.
Cissokho, an Olympic bronze medal winner from France, went down in Round 9 but otherwise seemed to control the fight.
The judges saw it differently. One judge had Conway winning 97-92 (seven rounds to three) but the other two scored it for Cissokho, 96-93 and 95-94.
Cissokho (13-0, 8) boxed effectively behind his long jab from the beginning, sticking, moving and seemingly landing more power shots than Conway (16-2-1, 3 KOs).
The British fighter pushed the action much of the fight but did more chasing than landing punches for most of the fight.
Conway had his moment only seconds into Round 9, when a double left uppercut forced Cissokho to drop to his knees. It appeared that his eye or eye socket was injured as a result of one of the punches.
Conway followed up by throwing a furry of punches in an attempt to stop Cisshokho but soon backed off, which allowed Cissokho to get back into his groove.
The Frenchman, who has been working with trainer Virgil Hunter, controlled Round 12 with his stick-and-move tactics.
Boxing Junkie scored it 98-91 for Cissokho, nine rounds to one.
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