Boxing In Denmark: Kessler Stops Sartison In Final Round

Showing no ill effects from his only career loss to date against Joe Calzaghe last November, super middleweight Mikkell Kessler turned in a good performance in front of a hometown crowd by stopping opponent Dimitri Sartison in the 12th and final round to annex the vacant WBA title last night at Bronby Hallen in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Germany based Sartison was giving away four inches in height to the Dane but showed considerable ring savvy by using good movement in the early going to nullify Kessler’s advantages.

Sartison troubled the local man with his awkwardness and connected with looping shots that surprised Kessler but the native born Kazak’s luck didn’t last forever.

By the midway point in the fight, Kessler was beginning to dial in range but was then forced to hold off a Sartison rally in the seventh before regaining the initiative.

With trademark precision, Kessler went to work with both hands and battered his rival with increasing frequency as the bout wore on.

Sartison was taking a massive step up in competition compared to his previous opponents and by the 12th round could no longer absorb the levels of abuse that Kessler was dishing out.

The visitor hit the canvas after a Kessler combination and couldn’t beat the count of referee Stanley Christodouolu.

Kessler regains a portion of his unified title in winning the WBA crown and improves to 40-1 (30), while Sartison suffers his first loss to fall to 22-1 (14).

On the undercard there were two high level women’s boxing events with Bulgaria’s Galina Koleva Ivanona, 9-6-2 (0), shocking the world’s top bantamweight, previously undefeated Anita Christensen, 24-1 (8), via a ten round points decision to capture the WBC, WBA and GBU crowns in one fell swoop.

Local light welter Vinni Skovgaard, 7-0 (3), won the vacant European Women’s title by seeing off Germany’s Cornelia Zimmer, 9-3 (2), over the ten round distance.