BOXING

• Garay beats Barashian to take light heavyweight belt

  
  

  Buenos Aires, Argentina (Sports Network) - Hugo Garay won the vacant WBA light heavyweight belt with a sound beating of Yuri Barashian, by unanimous decision.

  The scorecards read 118-11, 120-108, and 118-110 in favor of Garay, who had never before held a world title.

  Garay challenged for the WBO light heavyweight title on two previous occasions -- in May 2004 and February 2005 against Zsolt Erdei -- but lost each time.

  Barashian, 28, hadn't lost a bout in more than four years. His last loss came in September 2003 to Robert Stieglitz, and since then he had won 19 consecutive matches -- including the European championship title match over Thomas Ulrich in February of this year.

  07/04 03:05:57 ET