After eleven rounds, Abraham was ahead by scores of 110-99, 106-101 and 108-100, a
scoring that looked too wide although Arthur was
clearly winning. As usual, Abraham took his time,
allowed his opponent to punch while blocking most
punches with the gloves and then opening up in long
bursts of heavy hooks from both hands. Ayala showed
good speed and defence as he slipped a lot of punches
and scored with fast jabs and hooks to the head and
body of Abraham.
Next up for the champ is a fight in the United States in June.
Cruiser Wayne "Big Truck" Braithwaite scored a
dramatic come from behind win over Cuban Yoan Pablo
Hernandez. Braithwaite was floored in the first but
got into it and traded on even terms in the second
with the hard punching Hernandez and even got the
better of the exchanges at the end of the round. Then
in the third he hurt Hernandez for real, scoring three
knockdowns for a stoppage at 1.52. Hernandez protested
but to no avail.
American cruiser Kendrick Releford lost a close call
to Enad Licina after eight very good rounds of boxing.
Licina had a rough first round but finished strongly.
Danish super middleweight Mads Larsen looked far from his
best outscoring American Ross Thompson over eight.
Sauerland Event is now working towards a shot at IBF
champ Lucian Bute. All alternatives are open but May
17 in Aarhus has been mentioned - having said that
Bute vs Larsen is far from a done deal, since Mads would first of all
need an IBF rating to be accepted as
a challenger.
Polish cruiser Lukasz Janik passed his first test
outscoring strong Luxemboourger Jean Claude Bikoi over
six.
NEWS
WBO and IBF heavy champ Wladimir Klitschko
stated in Puerto Rico recently that he would defend
the WBO title against mandatory challenger Tony
Thompson in July in Germany. This caused an angry
reaction from Sauerland Event, who promotes Alexander
Povetkin, Klitschko´s mandatory challenger with the
IBF. Both Povetkin and Thompson, well, especially
Tony, have been waiting for some time now for their
chance. Stay tuned for more.
EU welter champ Daniele Petrucci defends against
Antonio Lauri June 7 in Rome in an all Italian
matchup. Buccione Boxing promotes.
Giacobbe Fragomeni take on Bulgarian veteran
Konstantin Semerdiev in a defence of the EU cruiser
title April 15 in Campione d´Italia. In the co-feature
Domenico Spada and Djamel Bahki clash for the WBC
Int'l. middleweight title.
Dutch/Nigerian lightweight Innocent Anyanwu goes for
the vacant Dutch title against Gagik Martirosyan April
13 in the Hague. Martirosyan, fighting out of France
with a Luxembourg license but from Armenia, is
accepted as challenger as there are no Dutch
lightweights available. Should Martirosyan win the
title remains vacant. Innocent is also set to fight
May 1 in Bruges, Belgium, on the annual Fernand
Roelands Memorial.
