European Boxing News: Kessler vs. Sartison Card Recap

By Per Ake Persson

Mikkel Kessler regained the WBA Super Middle title with a 12th round stoppage of Dmitri Sartison. Sartison was totally exhausted when the Dane finally caught up with him and floored him with a barrage of punches. It was waved off right away and the German, who should have been retired by his corner earlier, was taken to the hospital as a precaution.

Sartison was also down in the eleventh and was trailing by nine points on two cards and eleven on the third going into the final round. Still, it started so well for Sartison as he rocked Kessler badly with a sneaky overhand right.

The Dane barely remained upright but grabbed command later in the round. And he stayed in command throughout although Sartison was dangerous with his wide punches from the outside. But while Mikkel kept winning the rounds, he looked far from as impressive as he did against, for instance, Librado Andrade but then again styles makes fights.

Sartison retreated, spoiled and was looking for openings as Kessler attacked; the German also showed good legs and was a difficult target. Sartison had a good seventh, but lost every round after that and Kessler should perhaps have stopped him earlier but opted for a wear´em down strategy that worked but didn´t impress.

Bulgarian Galina Ivanova outboxed Anita Christensen and won the WBC, WBA and GBU female bantam titles with a clear points win. An upset on paper, but not in reality as Christensen has slipped of late while Ivanova always been an underestimated force.

Cruiser Anders Hugger put up a solid performance in stopping Brazilian Robert Martins in the third of the walkout fight.

Lightweight Martin Kristjansen stopped Wellington De Jesus, also from Brazil, in the fourth. De Jesus entered the ring blinking and the problems got worse as Kristjansen poured it on and the Brazilian was more or less unable to see when the stoppage came.

Female junior welter Vinni Skovgaard won the European and WIBF Intercontinental titles with a unanimous decision over German Cornelia Zimmer. It was scored 98-92 twice and 99-92.

Heavyweight Claus Bertino was knocked down right away against Hungarian Norbert Sallai but knocked out Sallai later in the first.

Norwegian feather Andreas Evensen won a majority decision over Swede Rikard Lundby after eight good rounds of boxing. It seemed very close but the judges had it 80-72, 79-73 and then a more sensible 76-76.

Sartison´s stablemate Gennadyi Golovking outscored tough Algerian Amir Amari over eight. Golovkin dominated but Amari showed good defence and made it difficult for his touted opponent.