By Alexey Sukachev & Per Ake Persson
MORE LIVE RESULTS TO COME................
Czech former WBO and EBU jr. middleweight champ Lukas Konecny (49-4, 23KOs) moved up to middleweight and won the vacant WBO Euro title with a unanimous technical decision over Frenchman Karim Archour (14-4-2, 3KOs) after a rather drab fight with no highlights. The fight was stopped in the 12th and final round with Konecny, cut after an accidental headclash in the second, and again cut in the last round moving away, was unable to see. It was scored 118-110 twice and 116-112 for Konecny, who was superior but clearly disturbed by the cut and the second cut made it impossible for him to see properly.
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American unified WBO/WIBF flyeight champion Melissa McMorrow (9-3-3, 1 KO) continued her recent rise with a hard-fought entertaining split decion over tough German challenger Nadia Raoui (15-2-1, 3 KOs). Both girls engaged into a crowd-pleasing fistic performance as "Mighty" Melissa tried to engage her opponent in the close quarters, supporting her every move with loud screams. Raoui did her share of work, fighting hard and landing body punches. But the American fighter was almost unstoppable and very determined. She wobbled Raoui a bit in the seventh round and finished the fight very strong. Her efforts were accepted by two judges: 96-94 and unrealistic 99-91, while the third judge awarded the bout to Raoui - 96-94. BoxingScene had it 97-93 - for the little American.
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Edmund Gerber´s career lives again after winning a close decision ov German-based Nigerian Gbenga Oloukun in a eight round heavyweight clash. It was scored 77-76 twice and 77-75 for the German while I had it 77-75 for Oloukun and judging by the boos most of the crowd agree with me. Gerber started well but then got cut on the bridge of the nose and lost the second. Oloukun was also cut on the nose and upped the pace in the fifth when he took over beating Gerber to the punch. Oloukun was clearly the stronger man down the stretch with Gerber tiring and losing spirit. In the eighth Edmund was a spent force and was hurt by a right upercut but hang on and was saved by the bell. It wasn´t the kind of win that makes one think Edmund Gerber, now 23-1, is the man for the future in the heavyweight division.
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Highly regarded English super middleweight George Groves (18-0, 14 KOs), arguably the second best British 168lber past Carl Froch, made an easy work of Syrian fighter Baker Barakat (37-14-4, 25 KOs), stopping him at 2:20 of the second round. Groves scored his scond knockout win in two weeks.
WBO/WBA #2, WBC #5 and IBF #7 Groves was cautious in the first, adjusting his style to a shorter opponent and then rocked him badly with a left uppercut and right hook combination in the closing seconds of the opening stanza. In the second round, Groves continued to deal damaging blows to his foe. He finally dropped him after a combination of punches, the last being placed at te back of Barakat's head. Yet, referee issued a count. The Syrian continued to figh back but "Saint" George's power was too much for him and soon he got stopped on his feet after a couple of landed shots by Groves.
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2012 German Olympian Enrico Koelling (5-0) still struggles to deliver one impressive performance (even against sub-par opposition) due to a sad lack of punching power. Against Czech trialhorse Josef Obeslo (3-9-1, 2 KOs) Koelling looked better than his foe in almost every department, but Obeslo has never been in danger of being stopped. Koelling was content to outpoint the Czech with his jab and to get a unanimous decision over six uneventful rounds.
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In a TV-opener, young German super middleweight Moritz Stahl improved his perfect record to 4-0, with 4 KOs, after blowing out incapable Hungarian Joszef Orsos (5-8, 2 KOs) with a single left hook to the liver midst into the first round.
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