By Alexey Sukachev

After twelve entertaining rounds of two-way action and furious exchanges, we have... an old champion retaining the WBO cruiserweight title. Marco Huck (31-1, 23 KOs), 26, kept his regalia with a controversial twelve-round split decision over determined and tough WBO #1 challenger Denis Lebedev (21-1, 16 KOs), 31, in a fight, which could have gone either way but which should have probably been awarded to the Russian boxer-puncher.

It was a see-saw battle from the outset. Lebedev, shorter and with shorter hands, pressed the action as the aggressor. On the other hand, Huck was unusually "soft" and did his share of work on the defensive. In round one, southpaw Lebedev used several well-placed left hands to tag the champion's frame. In the second, Huck came back well with a variety of punches. However, his wild swings of "hillbilly boxing club" were too wide and too observable to trouble the challenger. The same couldn't be said about single straight right hands which troubled Lebedev all night long. Simply put, the champion could hardly miss with those, especially at the very beginning of the fight. When he missed though, Lebedev was unable to capitalize on that with his left hook as his reach was simply not enough. Also in the second, Huck landed a big right hand while still holding the Russian's head which almost got him a knockdown.

The third stanza was pretty close as neither boxer got an edge. The fourth was definitely in Denis' favour who landed a series of punches. However, Marco was moving along the ropes in style giving his opponent little chance to get to him with right hands in pursuit. Rounds fives and six were almost even but Lebedev, who often worked off his opponent's body, was warned twice be referee Ed Cotton for hitting below the beltline.

It was in the seventh, when Huck appeared to be fading visibly. His counter-punches and wild furies became more sparse down the stretch of the clash, while Lebedev not only maintained but increased his aggressiveness. He was stalking Huck around the ring but lacked combinational punching to get the job done. Nevertheless, there were several moments in rounds eight and nine, when Lebedev's pressure and smart left-right-left combinations really troubled the Germany-based Bosnian. On Huck's beehalf, he landed some clean (and crisp) right hands which had been taken well by Lebedev. Huck mounted a slight comeback to make the tenth and the eleventh rounds more even. The twelfth, however, was all Lebedev's who went right after running Huck, who presumably knew of judges' expected decision as he boxed wisely and avoided any exchanges at all.

After twelve rounds, judge William Lerch (USA) had it 116-112 - for Denis Lebedev (The Ring's #4), but he was overruled by Lahcen Oumghar (Netherlands) and Manuel Olivier Palomo (Spain), who had it for The Ring's #2 Huck identically - 113-115. BoxingScene had little doubt in Lebedev, scoring this fight 117-114 - for the Russian fighter (with three rounds even).

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What was supposed to be an easy tune-up for the Russian top heavyweight and the country's only super heavyweight Olympic gold medalist, Alexander Povetkin (21-0, 15 KOs), turned out to be a stern test for the highly regarded prospect. Povetkin, 31, got through big American Nicolay Firtha (19-8-1, 8 KOs)... and severe pain in his right hand, which made him a one-armed bandit for almost entire ten-round fight, to get a hard-fought but well-deserved unanimous decision with the scores: 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92. BocingScene saw it 99-93 - also for the WBO/WBA #3 and WBC #8 heavyweight Povetkin, who is also ranked #3 by The Ring.

Povetkin started the fight in brilliant fashion, putting Firtha in danger with his first punches and landing them in succession for an entire stanza. He continued to dominate the American with his sheer aggression and also well-laced right bombs and left hooks in the second but it looked like he broke his right hand in one of his assaults. From now on it was a war of attrition between an injured Russian fighter and his big and healthy opponent.

Povetkin barely used his right hand only to cover up but landed big left hooks to both the head and the body of Firtha in short yet lethal spurts. The American fighter answered with uppercuts in close quarters and even rocked Povetkin with one such shot in the fourth. Round five was one of the best for American yet the Russian boxer continued to be a better man in the ring even with a single hand. Rounds six and seven were pretty even, and in the seventh stanza Firtha landed another thunderous uppercut and a big right hand on Povetkin's way out to get a possible edge in that one.

However, the Russian boxer caught his second win afterwards and started to beat Firtha to the punch. In round nine he opened a huge cut over American's right eye with a monstrous left hook and also took the final stanza as well. "I hurt my right hand either in the first or in the second round", said Povetkin in a post-fight quickie. "It was a test which God sent me. I had to withstand big problems, and though my performance wasn't very good I've got through it".

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In a complete disaster, WBA #2 Cuban Yoan Pablo Hernandez (23-1, 12 KOs) scored a controversial first-round TKO over Russia-based WBA #3 Azerbaijani Ali Ismailov (18-4-1, 13 KOs). The fight started patiently with the shorter and stockier Ismailov, 36, slowly pressing the tall southpaw cruiserweight around the ring. Ismailov wasn't throwing much, using his jab to create tiny problems for Hernandez. The 26-year old Cuban fighter landed nothing of any significance till the start of the last minute of the opening stanza. It was when he landed a big left hand, which wobbled Ismailov, and then he added a major right hand. The Azerbaijani went back and suddenly fell out of the ring. With his back on the canvas and his legs on the ropes, Ismailov was given a count of ten by French referee Jean-Louis Legland. Upon reaching the count of ten he waved the fight off, while Ismailov was still trying to get up and with his legs tied by the ropes. It looked like Ali, who lost five seconds while complaining, was fine but just didn't have enough time to get out of the ropes.

To the huge displeasure of the local crowd and specifically promoter Wilfried Sauerland, the fight was waved off and announced as a TKO 1 win for Yoan Pablo Hernandez at 2:23 of the opening stanza. Thus the Cuban fighter won the WBA 200lb eliminator to face either interim champion Steve Herelius or an "ordinary" titleholder Guillermo Jones. Hernandez was also ranked #7 by the WBO and #14 by the IBF coming into this fight.

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Bulgarian heavyweight hope Kubrat Pulev (10-0, 5 KOs) continued his way up in class with an easy workmanlike decision over Italian veteran Paolo Vidoz (26-10, 15 KOs). At 40 years of age and nore than 270 pounds of weight, Vidoz was very slow and too inactive to give Pulev real trouble. The rising "Cobra", on the other hand, was patient and didn't want to risk much against a presumably hard-hitting opponent. Vidoz showed some poise in the third when he was able even to rock the Bulgarian momentarily but Pulev promptly regroupped, got back to basics and didn't give the Italian any more chances. He was using his jab to establish a much needed distance and landed hard shots in succession. He also landed several hard body blows to trouble Vidoz in the midst of the fight. The Italian fighter used every trick in the book to survive till the final bell and was successful in doing so. All three scorecards were identical: 80-72 - for Kubrat Pulev. BoxingScene's tally was the same.

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Comebacking Germany-based Italian heavyweight Francesco Pianeta (21-0-1, 13 KOs), 26, returned into action in frenetic fashion with the first-round blowout of 42-year old Mike Middletone (13-20-1, 5 KOs). In a minute after the start of the fight, Pianeta rocked his opponent with a right hand and got the job done with a liver shot which had Middletone down and out. Time was 1:10 of the first. Pianeta was last seen in the ring more than a year ago. 

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German light heavyweight prospect Dustin Dirks (18-0, 12 KOs), 21, didn't experience any troubles against tough but limited French journeyman Alpay Kobal (7-10-2, 5 KOs), 34. Taller and bigger Dirks used his left hand to keep the shorter Kobal at bay, peppered him with jabs and added multi-punch combinations (mainly made of hooks to both Alpay's body and head). The French boxer was eating punches for all eight rounds but was slightly wobbled only in the eighth and last round of the contest. All three scorecards were in Dirks' favour: 80-72 (twice) and 80-71.

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Sweden's light heavyweight Erik Skoglund (4-0, 2 KOs) scored an easy stoppage of overmatched Serbian Mile Nikolic (4-9, 2 KOs), 27, in a TV-opener of a big show, promoted by Sauerland Event at max Schmeling Halle in Berlin. 19-year old Scandinavian talent dominated the first round easily and dropped Nikolic twice. The second knockdown, which was caused by a combination of the right uppercut and left hook, also cut the Serbian over his left eye. Nikolic's corner stopped the fight immediately after the opening stanza.

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