Arena Boxing: Airich, Pala, Virchis, Saglam Win In Cuxhaven, Germany

At Arena’s “heavyweight night” in Cuxhaven, Germany, Konstantin Airich, Ondrej Pala, Wladimir Virchis and Yakup Saglam scored convincing victories.

“Sandman” Airich beat ring veteran Cisse Salif by unanimous decision after eight rounds. The German, now 13-2-1, was the more active man in the ring connecting with some heavy hands without impressing tough Salif too much. Scores were 79-73, 79-75 and 78-74.

“Konstantin showed a very good performance”, said promoter Ahmet Öner. “We know that Cisse is not easy to handle. There are not many good heavyweight prospects in Germany . I am very happy to have the two best in Konstantin and Steffen Kretschmann in my team.”

Stated Airich, “I thank Ahmet for giving me this new chance. I wanted to show the fans in Cuxhaven what I am capable of. Cisse is very hard to knock out; I am happy with the way I fought tonight.”

At his last appearance in Cuxhaven, Airich had lost to Czech rising star Ondrej Pala. Pala returned to the North Sea on Saturday night as well scoring another impressive victory by outscoring former Ukrainian amateur standout Alex Mazikin 77-75, 80-69, 80-72. It was Pala’s 25th win in 27 pro-fights while Mazikin dropped to 13-3-1.

“Ondrej Pala is one of the best European heavies out there”, said Öner. “He is only 25 years old. Of course, he still has to learn a lot and I am sure that he can and will improve but he is already on a very good way and competing on a very high level.”

Former European champion Wladimir Virchis gave his comeback more than one year after losing the WBC Final Elimination bout to Juan Carlos Gomez. Virchis dominated Edgar Kalnars from Latvia scoring a well-deserved 59-55, 59-55, 59-56 victory after six rounds.

“I had hoped for a knockout but sometimes it just doesn’t happen”, said Virchis. “Of course, I felt that I had been out of the ring for more than a year and I was a little rusty. But I am happy that I am back and that I won the fight. I thank Ahmet Öner for giving me the chance to start a new life with Arena.”

Unbeaten Turkish heavyweight star Yakup Saglam scored his 22nd win in as many pro-fights stopping Ladislav Kovarik from the Czech Republic in five.

Super middleweight prospect Christian Pawlak scored a unanimous decision win over Czech Michal Bilak. Lightweight Magomed Yangubaev stopped Valentins Morozovs from Latvia in the first.

European welterweight champion Selcuk Aydin, world class middleweight contenders Mahir Oral and Khoren Gevor and world flyweight championess Susi Kentikian attended the show ringside.