The pre-fight data pointed to a dominant performance. Jimmy Sains had stopped 10 of his 11 opponents. Derrick Osaze had suffered two TKO losses in his last three fights. The 1/8 favourite had a 91% knockout rate. And yet — when the final bell rang at the Copper Box Arena — one judge had it a draw, and Sains was breathing hard. The result was correct. The manner was the story.
| Date | March 21, 2026 |
| Venue | Copper Box Arena, London |
| Result | Jimmy Sains W MD 10 Derrick Osaze |
| Scores | 97-93, 96-94 Sains, 95-95 |
Osaze arrived — as the fight preview flagged — as the most experienced opponent Sains had faced, and he used every bit of it. Rounds one through three saw Sains hunting for the finish: Osaze’s lateral movement and ring generalship kept him away from the power shots that had ended every previous fight in the opening rounds.
By the middle rounds, it became clear this was going to be different. Osaze — who had gone the full ten rounds with George Liddard in January 2025 — was determined to do the same against Liddard’s stablemate. He countered smartly, controlled distance with the jab, and at points in rounds five and six had the Copper Box Arena crowd murmuring.
Sains eventually imposed himself from rounds seven to ten, pressing forward and using his 6’1” southpaw frame to accumulate rounds on the cards. But the finish never came — and the 95-95 scorecard from one judge tells you everything about how competitive the middle rounds were.
For a man whose previous eleven wins included ten stoppages, being taken the full ten rounds by an opponent whose recent form included a TKO2 to Denzel Bentley is a result that the Boxing Data numbers will flag for analysis.
The 97-93, 96-94, 95-95 scorecards reveal the truth: this was not a dominant performance. One judge could not separate the fighters. Osaze’s 2019 Ultimate Boxxer II win — defeating three prospects in one night, including Kieron Conway — always hinted at an ability to rise for occasions. He delivered that at the Copper Box Arena, and the majority scorecard validates it.
For Sains, the lesson from the data is clear: his KO rate will naturally slow as opponents improve in quality. Saturday night demanded championship-level craft over ten rounds — the kind of sustained technical output that his nine previous stoppages had never required. He found enough to win. He will need more as the opposition scales up.
Sains improves to 12-0 and retains his English Middleweight title. Osaze falls to 13-4 — but leaves the Copper Box Arena with enormous credit. He gave the 1/8 favourite the hardest night of his professional career, and the 95-95 scorecard from one judge is a genuine statement of performance.
Jimmy Sains won, and that is what matters. But Saturday night at the Copper Box Arena showed that the work ahead — if the Beterbiev comparison is to mean anything beyond a nickname — is significant. Derrick Osaze, the Punching Preacher from Peckham, earned every bit of that 95-95 scorecard.
Also on the Copper Box card: Tyler Denny’s stunning Round 1 KO of George Liddard is the biggest story of the night — covered in the Liddard vs Denny review, and Giorgio Visioli delivered a dominant English title defence in the Visioli vs Giles review.
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