For Carlos Takam, it was an opportunity to be in a main event on a televised card in short notice. He accepted it and made the most out of that opportunity.

Takam defeated Jerry Forrest by unanimous decision to improve his record to 39-5-1. He got scores of 96-94, 97-93, and 98-92 over Forrest, who was originally scheduled to fight Jarrell Miller but Miller tested positive for PEDs a couple weeks ago.

This fight was a tale of two halves as Takam had a fast start but faded down the stretch. Takam was able to fight well off his back foot and be first to attack while Forrest had to deal with the aggressiveness while waiting to catch Takam with a counter left hand. Instead of setting up traps and using the right jab, Forrest was dormant and allowed Takam to be the aggressor.

Midway through the fight, Takam suffered a cut on his eye and was pawing at it during the later rounds. With that opening Forrest had a chance to get back in the fight. He was able to get back between Rounds 7 and 9, but not enough in the last round to show that he wanted to get the win.

Takam getting the win was impressive given that not only that he had to take the fight on short notice, but he recently lost his father the week before. He came to the ring with a shirt honoring his father, and paid homage to his father after the fight.

“My father passed away a week ago, so I came into the fight with a heavy heart. It may not have been a spectacular knockout, but most importantly, we got the win,” Takam said. “We took this fight on short notice, but the opportunity on ESPN was too big to pass up. We knew we could beat (Forrest) regardless.”

As for his plans for the next fight, the former IBF mandatory challenger mentioned that he wants the top guys in the division.

“I want anyone in the top five, or a title shot if that materializes.”