Jamaica's Barrett lose again

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (CMC):

US-based Jamaican boxer Vinroy Barrett suffered his fourth defeat in five fights, on Saturday night, when world-rated Yuri Foreman of Belarus defeated him on points at Boardwalk Hall.

The unbeaten Foreman outclassed Barrett and easily won their non-title middleweight contest, which was one of the support bouts to the big non-title main event that saw the ageing Bernard Hopkins upset previously unbeaten champion Kelly Pavlick.

Ring record reduced

Barrett's loss reduces his current ring record 22 wins (11 knockouts) against seven losses, while Foreman improves to 26-0 with eight knockouts.

Foreman, 28, is on course for a world title shot and is ranked among the top-10 light middleweights in all the major world bodies. He is number five with the World Boxing Association (WBA), sixth on the World Boxing Council (WBC) list and number seven with the International Boxing Federation.

The 33-year-old Barrett, a former Jamaica amateur champion before he turned pro in 1997, gave a spirited display, but Foreman was superior and registered a shutout (100-90) on all the judges' cards.

In the main event, the 43-year-old Hopkins, a former undisputed world middleweight champion, stunned the previously unbeaten WBC and World Boxing Organi-sation (WBO) champion Pavlick, whose titles were not at stake.

Hopkins delivered a boxing lesson to the 26-year-old Pavlick and won the 12-round bout 119-106, 118-108, 117-109.