Boxing News Boxing News
Rising middleweight star Mahir Oral added another victory and title to his record. The 28-year-old “Lion” scored an eighth round TKO over Alexander Sipos to win the vacant WBC Mediterranean championship on Monday in Cuxhaven, Germany.
Sipos started strong but Oral took control in the later rounds forcing his opponent to give up after the seventh.
“Mahir showed a great performance”, stated three-time WBC super middleweight champion Markus Beyer who attended the show as special ringside guest. “He is very talented, was extremely focused and did an excellent job against a very tough opponent.”
Former two-time WBO heavyweight champion Herbie Hide had a hard time against Polish journeyman Lukasz Rusiewicz, taking lots of very hard blows and forcing the “Dancing Destroyer” to a six-round unanimous decision win.
“I took this fight on very short notice because the main event had been cancelled due to an injury”, explained Herbie after the fight. “Ahmet Öner asked me whether I could jump in to fill the gap and I did it because I am very grateful for what he did to bring me back to the top.
“Two years ago before I signed with Arena I was down and out. Now I am at a top position again. I will fight in a final eliminator for the world cruiserweight championship. The ‘Dancing Destroyer’ is back on track. I will be world champion again!”
Hot German heavyweight prospect Steffen Kretschmann, 13-0 (12), showed the best performance of his pro career so far stopping Marcel Zeller, 21-3 (20), in two rounds.
After two knockdowns in the first and some very hard blows in the second referee Ernst Salzgeber stopped the fight at 44 seconds into the round.
“That was a great and important win”, said Kretschmann. “Now I want to go on to become European champion. I hope that I will get a chance to fight for that title soon.”
In another all German heavyweight clash, Konstantin Airich took a close unanimous decision win after eight exciting rounds against veteran Alexander Jakob. Airich knocked down Jakob, eventually breaking his opponent’s leg in the second. But Jakob fought back anyways and gave the “Sandman” a very hard time in the later rounds.
“This was a great night of boxing”, stated Arena-CEO Ahmet Öner. “We saw exciting fights and great action in the ring. We want to thank the great fans in Cuxhaven for supporting our fighters. We will definitely come back for more shows next year.”
Other results:
Middleweight Mustafa Karagol won a decision over Ivan Maslov after four rounds.
Cruiserweight Ivica Bacurin drew against Remigijus Ziausys after six rounds.
