February 23, Halle an der
Saale, Gemany:
Ukrainian light heavy Yuri Barashian won the EBU title
with an eighth round stoppage of Thomas Ulrich, the
defending champion. Ulrich was hurt by a body shot
late in fifth, floored three times in the seventh from
the very same southpaw left hooks to the liver area.
Early in the eighth Barashian floored Ulrich again
with that left hook and it was waved over at 0.56 as
Thomas got up. It was a tough fight from the start and
developed into a wild punch up as the German, sensing
the fight was slipping away from him, opened up with
both hands. Barashian was hard to catch though and
Ulrich kept missing with an alarming number of
punches. After seven it was scored 66-65 and 67-63 for
Barashian and 66-66. The judges were split on the
seventh round as well, scoring it 10-6, 10-7 and 10-8.
Russian cruiser Aleksander Alekseev again impressed in
retaining the WBO I/C title with a stoppage of
American Talmadge Griffin, who was retired by his
corner after the second round. Griffin was down twice
in the first and hurt in the second.
Super middleweight Dmitri Sartison stopped Argentinean Pablo
Daniel Zamora Nieves at 1.46 of the eighth of a
scheduled non-title ten rounder.
Welter Oliver Guettel won a close call over Spaniard
Juan Martinez Bas over eight.
Czech jr middle Lukas Konecny knocked out Kimfuta
Makassu in the second with a left hook to the body.
Colombian cruiser Santander Silgado moved to 12-0 (12 KOs)
with a second round stoppage of Brit John Anthony. Silgado looked pretty green though and must have been
close to a DQ loss after a blatant low blow in the
first. Anthony bent over, and then sat down with
Salgado punching on his floored opponent.
Gomez vs Virchis update: "Everything you read on the
internet this far has been wrong" said Universum's CEO
Dietmar Poszwa. "We will put out a statement next
week. But both men asked for time to prepare and we
will get them that."
September 27 seems like the likely date which is sure
to leave both fighters unhappy.
