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KING ARTHUR ABRAHAM REGAINS WBO TITLE

After winning the third fight in his trilogy with Stieglitz

By Per-Ake Persson

March 1, Magdeburg, Germany – King Arthur Abraham (39-4) is again ruling the WBO supermiddleweights after a hardfought, fastpaced, foulfilled, exciting and absorbing fight against Robert Stieglitz (46-4). Abraham won a split decision on scores 115-110 and 114-111 while Stieglitz got the third vote at 113-112.

Abraham had a point deducted in the eighth for rabbit punching while Stieglitz had a point docked in the ninth for holding (or holding and hitting). Stieglitz was hurt and exhausted in the last and went down after taking a right hook the chin. Robert kept an enourmous workrate but wasn’t that effective while Abraham was always dangerous with his heavy hooks from all angles. Stieglitz kept coming in every round with Abraham fighting off the ropes and there were lots of wrestling on the inside with few effective punches landed. It went back and forth but in the later rounds it was obvious that Abraham was the stronger man.

Referee Genaro Rodriguez did a good job of handling a difficult fight but the point deduction of Stieglitz looked a bit like compensation for his action the round before against Abraham. It was noteworthy that judge Michael Perrick had Stieglitz winning the first five rounds - all that were pretty close and for my part I had Stieglitz ahead 3-2 after five.

Christina Hammer (18-0) retained the WBO and WBFed female middleweight titles with a unanimous points win over Jessica Balougon (23-6). It was scored 100-90 on all cards after ten two-minute rounds and there was little drama in this no-knockdown affair where Hammer fought at long

range and smothered her opponent on the inside. Balougon kept coming but was always ineffective.

Dennis Ronert (20-0) retained the IBF Youth cruiserweght title with a ten round unanimous points win over Shefat Isufi (12-1). Isufi, billed as from Albania, fought a defensive fight moving, fleeing and was looking to score with counters. He was at times effective but Ronert?s steady bodyattack won the fight for him. It was scored 98-92, 97-93 and a too close 96-94. Dennis was too passive in the later rounds and that made it closer. Isufi was caught by a right in the last round that buckled his knees but Ronert was too tired to follow up.

Michael Wallisch (12-0) retained the German - BDB - version heavyweight title with a second round knockout over Frank Schadwill (7-1-1) Schadwill was floored seconds in the first by a right hook and hurt later in the round as well. In the second Frank tried to attack but the bigger, stronger, better man countered and Schadwill was floored three times and the last time it was bad with the challenger on his back out of this world. Referee Frank-Michael Maass called it off without a count but could have stepped in sooner. The time 2.11

Heavyweight Tom Schwarz (4-0) outscored Latvian Janis Ginters (5-79 over four. It was scored 40-36 on all cards. Schwarz dominated every round scoring cleanly but couldn?t hurt his opponent.

German-based American Dario Bredicean (6-0) outscored Latvian Raimonds Sniedze (9-20-2) in a scheduled six-rounder that was cut to four for time reasons, It was scored 39-37 on all cards but was close enough for a draw in a messy fight with few clean punches. Bredicean, a southpaw, is promoted by SES and a was "discovered" by retired heavyweight Axel Schulz and brought to Germany.

Cruiser Tom Pahlmann (3-0) outscored local man Patrick Linkert (3-6-1) over four. Pahlmann, a southpaw, dominated the fight and won all the rounds on all cards.

Jr welter Felix Lamm (8-1) opened SES’ big show at a packed Getec Arena with a unanimous decision after six uneventful rounds against Slovakian journeyman Lubos Priehradnik (6-49). Lamm, a southpaw, outboxed his opponent and won all the rounds but Priehradnik kept coming but was just too slow to catch up with Lamm. A clash of heads in the last left Priehradnik cut on the forehead.

Per-Åke Persson