Kai Kurzawa, Svensson, Hammer Win Bouts in Hamburg
By Alexey Sukachev and Per Ake Persson
Hamburg, Germany - In the main event of the show, comebacking light heavyweight Kai Kurzawa (28-4, 20 KOs) continued his recent series of stoppage wins, impressively destroying Georgian Levan Jomardashvili (25-6, 18 KOs) in four rounds. Kurzawa, who had several victories over notable contenders in the first part of his career, was stronger but less effective than his opponent in the starting seconds of the fight. However, he soon took a full control of the action and immediately dropped Jomardashvili twice with body shots.In the second round the Georgian was down several more times but all of those falls were ruled as slips by the referee. Meanwhile, Jomardashvili enjoyed a good round three, when he landed several bit shots on Kurzawa. It didn't help him much as the German got the job done in the fourth round after two more knockdowns. Time was 1:27. Kurzawa is now WBO I/C light heavyweight beltholder.
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Angel McKenzie (4-27), a well-known British (but actually Russian) female European trialhorse (her true name is Elena Sadko, and she is from Moscow) lost her ninth in the row, dropping a unanimous decision to Swede Clara Svensson (4-0, 1 KO) over six. All scores were identical 60-54.
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Germany-based Romanian Christian Hammer (10-3, 6 KOs) acquired a vacant International German title with the second round TKO over no-hoper Serdar Uysal (13-16-2, 5 KOs). The Turkish fighter was down five times before a merciful stoppage by referee Juergen Langos.
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In a minor upset, Aяerbaijani Azad Azizov (25-3-2, 15 KOs) was sensationally held to an eight-round draw by 42-year old Kenyan veteran Nasser Athumani (23-7-3, 17 KOs). Azizov started strong but succumbed to measured power of the Kenyan in the second half of the fight. Most interesting of this fight is that Azizov has already stopped Athumani before, getting him out in seven rounds a year and a half ago. Since that time, the Azeri fighter scored wins over two relatively good opponent but looked rusty and lost tonight against his former victim. Scores were 76-76 (twice) and 77-75 - for Azizov.
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