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Father time finally caught up with heavily decorated two weight world champion Virgil Hill as the 43 year old was outperformed by challenger Firat Arslan, losing the WBA Cruiserweight title by a wide points verdict at Freiberger Arena in Dresden, Germany.
37 year old Arslan, a former longtime sparring partner of ex-European Champion Luan Krasniqi, sought to wear down the older man from the opening bell and backed up Hill for most of the fight.
Forced to largely rely on his countering skills, Hill kept up a good punch output but was unable to dissuade the oncoming German southpaw, who was able to land with both hands in the early rounds.
Hill attempted to take the steam out of Arslan’s attack in the middle rounds but didn’t have the power to hold onto the center of the ring and was soon again on the back foot.
Arslan fought the fight of his life, rocking the iron chinned champion with big shots down the stretch but was never able to hurt Hill as the American visitor showed good stamina to stay in the bout but he just couldn’t take away the challenger’s confidence.
By the time the twelve rounds were through, Arslan, 28-3-1 (18), was declared the new WBA Champion on scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 116-113.
Hill loses for the third time in his last four bouts and drops to 50-7 (23).
Also on the bill, WBO Light Heavyweight tiltist Zsolt Erdei, 28-0 (17), was given a tough fight by Panama’s Tito Mendoza, 36-8 (28), but the champion’s steady sharper skills won the day over the challenger’s sporadic powershots by split decision, 117-111, 116-112 and 111-117.
Super middle contender Dennis Inkin, 32-0 (24), kept his WBC International belt by outpointing Argentina’s Martin Abel Bruer, 19-2 (12), by marks of 117-110 (twice) and 117-111.
