By Alexey Sukachev 

Messehalle, Erfurt, Thuringen - In a WBO super middleweight world title eliminator, Arthur Abraham (46-5, 30 KOs) won a twelve round unanimous decision over Robin Krasniqi (46-5, 17 KOs). Abraham is now in line to get a title shot at WBO king Gilberto Ramirez, who returns later tonight against Max Bursak at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. The scores were 118-110, 115-114 and 117-111.

Abraham, a former WBO middleweight and super middleweight world champion, lost his 168-pound championship last April to Ramirez in Las Vegas. The Germany puncher bounced back in July, when he knocked out Tim Robin Lihaung in eight rounds. He was set to face Martin Murray in a rematch in the fall, but withdrew with an injury.

Krasniqi has only suffered two defeats since 2006, and both of them came at the light heavyweight limit in fights with world champions Nathan Cleverly and Juergen Braehmer. Since the loss Braehmer in March 2015, Krasniqi returned to the ring, as a super middleweight, to win his next three bouts.

Krasniqi came out his jab and Abraham with his well known high guard. Krasniqi was being far more active in the early rounds, while Abraham was just following him around with the high guard and throwing punches in spurts.

Abraham was applying a lot of pressure, while Krasniqi was doing well with his movement and defense. Abraham was making this very rough for Krasniqi, who couldn't stand in one place for too long as Abraham continued to come forward with pressure.

Krasniqi appeared to get stunned during the fifth round and was doing a lot of holding as Abraham kept coming with the pressure and was looking to do damage. Abraham would eventually start coming foreard with his hands down, because Krasniqi was not doing much punching and instead was holding.

The second half of the contest was the power and pressure of Abraham, who was doing most of the damage and pushing the pace of the fight. Krasniqi was once againt stunned in the ninth, as Abraham was taunting him to fight instead of hold.

Before the start of the tenth, the referee had threatened to stop the fight unless Krasniqi started showing some offense. Krasniqi did a little better in the tenth, but he was rocked at least twice and did more moving than fighting.

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WBO #8 heavyweight Tom Schwarz (19-0, 12 KOs) continued his way up in ranks and also acquired a vacant WBO Intercontinental title with the second-round stoppage of once-defeated Bosnian Adnan Redzovic. Redzovic was down twice in the second round, before a stoppage came at 2:54 of the round. Redzovic gets down to 18-2, 6 KOs.

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In a battle of undefeated light heavyweights, German Adam Deines recorded his eleventh win and improved to 11-0-1, 6 KOs, following a third-round blowout of Lukasz Golebiewski (8-1, 5 KOs) of Poland. The Pole was floored in the first and finished off with three seconds remaining in the third round.

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He is yet to score a stoppage win but Germany-based Turk Emre Cukur scored his sixth points win in the same number of fights with a shutout of Hungarian journeyman Zoltan Sera over eight rounds in a super middleweight contest. Scores were: 80-72 (thrice), and Sera gets down to 28-13, 19 KOs.

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Mohammed Rabii, one of the most heralded Moroccan fighters in history, had to work hard in order to protect his innocent record, barely overcoming Rwanda-born Belgian Jean Pierre Habimana (6-9-3, 2 KOs) over six hard-fought rounds. The sloe score was 58-56 - for Rabii, who is 2015 Doha WC gold medalist and 2016 Rio bronze medalist - both as a welterweight.

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Other results:
Marko Calic (4-0, 2 KOs) TKO 2 Attila Koros (13-11-1, 9 KOs). Time: 1:20.
Tom Dzemski (3-0, 1 KO) UD 4 Dominik Landgraf (0-2)
Tomas Salek (1-0, 1 KO) KO 3 Elvis Smajlovic (1-2, 1 KO)