By Per Ake Persson
Skive, Denmark: Super middleweight Lolenga Mock won the vacant EU title when Frenchman Franck Mezaache was forced to retire with a possible broken right hand and didn´t come out for the sixth round. Mock was ahead on points and had floored his opponent late in the second but appeared to have a lot of problems with Mezaache´s movement, longer reach and dangerous left hooks. Mock was stunned in the fourth but then came the injury. Some in the crowd booed but, again, Franck has a long history of bad hand injuries.
Lightweight Martin Kristjansen outscored tough Scot Stuart Green over six rounds in the fight of the night. Green kept coming but was outboxed by the slick but lightpunching Dane. Kristjansen could be headlining Team Palle´s December 15 show in Slagelse.
Jr. middleweight Reda Zam Zam knocked out Alvaro Moreno in the second as a tuneup for a defence of the WBA I/C title on November 24 in Copenhagen.
In St Quentin, France, feathers Cyril Thomas, the defending EBU champ, and Ukrainian Yuri Voronin fought to a technical draw in three rounds after Voronin was badly cut in the second.
In Torrevieja, Spain, Norwegian super bantamweight Reidar Walstad stopped Nikolai Michailov in the sixth.
Spotlight Boxing returns to the Universum Gym in Hamburg on November 21 for a show headlined by middleweight prospect Sebastian Zbik who fight Brazilian Jose Hilton dos Santos. At super middleweight Karoly Balzcay faces Czech Michal Bilak. Also on the bill are jr. welterweight Vitaly Tajbert and female fly Susi Kentikian.
Danish welterweight Thomas Damgaard has announced his retirement. Damgaard, a former EBU champ at jr welter and welter as well as IBC ruler at 147, goes out at 37-1. Not many believed in Thomas when he turned pro in 98. He had been around for a long time in the amateurs and while hard punching he was viewed as too straightforward and one-dimensional to make it in the pros. But Thomas proved all doubters wrong and won the EBU 140 lb title in only his ninth fight playing bull to Spanish matador Jose Luis Berdonce. Damgaard walked through strong Frenchman Khalid Rahilou as well.
As he moved up to welter he wasn´t really the same as but he still produced some exellent results in beating Philip Holiday and Alessandro Duran on sheer will power, non-stop agression and fighting spirit. Thomas´ last fight came against Arturo Gatti in January of this year and he was stopped in eleven. Damgaard will now work as boxing trainer for fitness.dk in Copenhagen. For my money, especially in the jr welter days, he was one of the most exciting fighters in this part of the world.
