By Per Ake Persson

Herning, Denmark - British underdog Luke Blackledge knocked out comebacking Danish super middleweight Mads Larsen in the fourth of a scheduled eight-rounder. Larsen started well boxing behind his southpaw jab and scoring with left uppercuts to the body. In the second, things began to go wrong when the aggressive Blackledge got close and after what may have been a clash of heads Larsen was cut by the left eye.

 

Larsen appeared to give in mentally after that but still scored with some impressive right-left combinations in the third ending the round strongly. However, Mads came out for the fourth as if everything was lost and Blackledge upped the pace showing exellent fighting spirit and finally broke through a with a right-left combination and Larsen sat down on one knee in Blackledge´s corner and was counted out at 1.26. After three it was scored 29-28 and 30-27 all for Larsen.

 

This must spell the end for Mads Larsen, an exellent boxer / puncher - but also one who never really had the heart to match his talent.

 

WBO, WBA and WBC female welterweight champ Cecilia Braekhus retained her titles with a hard-fought ten round unanimous decision over Jessica Balougun. It was scored 99-92 and 97-93 twice for Braekhus, who was the much better boxer. Balougun kept coming though and Braekhus had problems with finding the range at times and many rounds were messy and difficult to scor. A right uppercut in the last round hurt Balougun but she kept trying to the final bell.

Former Contender participant Ahmed Kaddour, now at middleweight, again showed his brilliant skills against tough Brit Gary Boulden and won clearly on points after eight. It was scored 78-74, 79-73 and a strange 76-76 making it majority decision (wrongly announced as 76-75 for Kaddour).

 

While Kaddour has skills he don't have stamina and that made for an exciting, but at times sloppy fight, with Boulden coming on strong in the later rounds after a slow start where he was outboxed.

Swedish light heavyweight Erik Skoglund knocked out Fouad Nasri at 0.42 into the second of a scheduled six rounder. Nasri tried to slug it with Skoglund, now 11-0, but was outslugged and went down and out. Nasri was down in the first as well.

 

Skoglun will now enjoy two weeks vacation with no training allowed and will then have another two weeks with light workouts before serious training begins early July. Next fight is scheduled for late September.

Jr. middleweight Torben Keller and Luca Arrigo,  a southpaw from Italy but fighting out of Barcelona, Spain, drew over four. It was scored 39-37 Keller and 38-38 twice. The Dane was badly hurt at the end of the first and was stunned several times in the third. However, Torben kept the second relatively even and won the last and it was enough to salvage a draw. Keller is good but left himself open for Arrigo´s southpaw left and almost became unstuck.

Jr. middleweight Reda Zam Zam continued his comeback with a third round TKO win over Italian Giuseppe Langella. The fight was stopped 54 seconds into the third when Langella injured his right leg and limped into his corner in strong pain leaving referee Freddy Rafn no option but to stop the fight. Zam Zam had won both the completed rounds and looked good in doing so but Langella seemed to be getting into it when the injury came. It was scheduled for ten. Langella left the ring crying, in heavy pain and needed support to walk.

Sauerland Event's final show for the season opened with highly ranked light heavyweight Karo Murat taking on journeyman Sandro Siproshvili in a scheduled eight-rounder. Murat, 25-1-1, stopped his opponent at 2.21 of the seventh. Siproshvili was down in the first, hurt and almost down again in the third and reeling across the ring when it was called off but gave his all and gave Murat a serious workout. After six it was scored 59-54, 58-55 and 60-53 for Murat, who is ranked # 2 by the IBF.