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“I have nothing to complain about. The boys did very well”. Short and sweet, so were the words of manager Henrik Risum after his two charges Fawaz Nasir and Kim Poulsen scored wins on Saturday night’s Larsen Boxing promotion in Aabybro, Denmark.
Nasir won by third round TKO over game Latvian Sandris Tomsons, while Poulsen outboxed hard-headed Lubos Priehradnik from Slovakia over six one-sided rounds. The show was aired live by Danish TV channel DK4.
Super middleweight Nasir, coming off a six-month lay-off after a close decision-loss to undefeated Pole Lukas Wilaschek last year, came out looking sharp with his pole-like left jab, and moved away well when the aggressive Latvian charged in spurts.
The right hand followed and connected with regular intervals and Nasir plain and simple had too much skill for Tomsons to threaten him unless he got close. And getting close to Nasir would ironically prove to be the end for Tomsons.
The second round was more of Nasir dominating with the jab, mixing in some right hands and hooks to body and head, and on a few occasions he tried to throw the right uppercut at close quarters.
The first two times he didn’t connect cleanly, but with the round closing out and Tomsons again trying to get in close, Nasir fired off a perfect uppercut that caught Tomsons clean on the chin and he fell to canvas in a heap.
Legs collapsed under him, Tomsons gamely staggered to his feet and was allowed to continue. Nasir was on him immediately and managed to deliver another combination before the bell saved a still-hurt Tomsons.
Between rounds, a marked, cut and shaken Tomsons decided he could not continue, and Nasir, co-managed by Fight Production in Germany, was declared the winner by third round TKO in a more than satisfactory performance highlighted by that beautifully delivered uppercut which sent Tomsons crashing.
With the victory Nasir got back on the winning trail, and improved his record to 12-2, 1 No-Contest, seven wins coming inside the distance. He will be back in the ring again in late March or early April to continue his quest for a new title fight.
As was pretty much expected, Kim Poulsen could not stop the iron-chinned Lubos Priehradnik inside the scheduled six rounds, but during the cause of the fight, the 21-year-old Dane displayed some very fluent and impressive technical boxing, underlining the development he is undergoing in the gym with trainer Brian Mathiasen.
Priehradnik, who has gone the distance with some of the best in Europe, was expected to come out aggressive and with some kind of ambition, but Poulsen simply never let him in the fight, and peppered his adversary with quick left jabs, right counters and left-right hook-combinations that bewildered the Slovak from the first bell.
Priehradnik managed to tie up Poulsen on a few occasions, but the Danish prospect didn’t let it bother him too much, took his time to breath and went about his job by connecting with precise shots from all angles, and even seemed to hurt his foe a few times.
The only thing missing in a near-flawless performance was Poulsen getting rid of Priehradnik inside the distance, but manager Risum explains that this was not something that was in the plans in the first place:
“We knew that stopping Priehradnik would be a very, very hard task, because he has gone the distance, and pushed much harder punchers than Kim all the way. One could argue that Priehradnik didn’t offer much in return, but I think that this is only to Kim’s credit.
“An opponent can only do what you allow him to do, and Kim didn’t allow Priehradnik anything at all. We wanted to see Kim go six three-minute rounds at a nice pace, because he will have learnt a lot from that, and we got what we wanted, and we are all happy.
“This was another step in Kim’s education as a professional boxer, and the knockouts will come later, I am sure. He is starting to punch harder now, so why shouldn’t they?”
Poulsen took his record to 7-1 (1), with the only blemish being a controversial and close decision against tough Frenchman Tony Jourda in London. Risum Boxing has an agreement with Larsen Boxing for Poulsen to appear on a show in Esbjerg on March 23, so it won’t be long before the gym calls again.
Nasir and Poulsens fights also marked the first time that Risum Boxing fighters appeared on a show sanctioned by the Danish Professional Boxing Federation. The two Danes are licensed by the German federation (BDB), and there has been some friction in the past between Henrik Risum and the DPBF.
But Risum expressed satisfaction with the way things evolved in Aabybro, saying:
“I am very happy being licensed by the BDB, and to have my boxers licensed there, but I want to thank the DPBF for the fair and professional treatment we all received this weekend. I had a nice talk with “El Presidente”, Jesper D. Jensen, and it is important for me that people understand that my previous dissatisfaction with the DPBF mainly concerned the people who ran it at that time.
“I don’t, and never have blamed Jesper for other people’s actions, and I am confident that we can have a professional and fair relationship in the future. And, also a thank you to promoter Robert Larsen for the cooperation”, finished Risum.
