By Per Ake Persson

Esbjerg, Denmark - EBU featherweight champ Alex Miskirtchian, 22-2-1, retained the title with a 12th and final round stoppage of Norwegian Andreas Evensen, 17-3-1. It was stopped at 2.33 Evensen as got up from a knockdown, he didn´t seem badly stunned but as referee Howard Foster looked at his face he called it off. Andreas looked as if he had been through a windmill - cut, swollen, bruised and part of the problem was poor cornerwork where the enswell seemed to be missing - and at the same time he wasn´t badly hurt but facial and visual damage also count.

 

Still Evensen put up one hell of a fight and gave Miskirtchian a very tough night making hardfought an understatement but the Belgian was just a little too strong and had more power. Andreas was down in the third after a right and hurt again in the seventh after a right to the ear. The challenger took all though, kept coming, punching non-stop and made it closer by outworking the champion. But Evensen lacks punching power and finesse at the higher level and for every round his face looked worse and worse and at the end I doubt he could see much out of the right eye  - and by tomorrow he will look like a victim of a traffic accident.

 

After eleven it was scored 105-104 twice and 105-103, all for Miskirtchian. I had it also for Miskirtchian but wider as I went with his more powerful punches.

Patrick Nielsen (18-0, 8KOs) retained his WBA Inter-Continental middleweight title with a hard-fought twelve round unanimous decision over Patrick Mendy. The scores were 117-110, 117-110, 117-111 but it looked closed than that.

Mendy was down in the fifth - it looked more like a slip but was ruled a knockdown. Mendy was out fast in the first but Nielsen grabbed command midway through the round and kept it until the sixth when Mendy suddenly came out as a southpaw and that appeared to confuse the Dane.

 

Nielsen is a fighter with a lot of temper and at times he is unable to control it and he almost blew it in the midrounds as he missed badly with Mendy coming on strong in the later rounds. It was hard-fought down the stretch and Mendy made a good start to the final round but Nielsen seemed to get to his opponent with southpaw left uppercuts to the body.

Danish cruiserweight Micki Nielsen, 6-0, knocked out Czech Josef Krivka, 2-2, with a southpaw left to the body after only 23 seconds of the first round of of a scheduled six-rounder, Krivka went down rather easily and stayed down as the crowd bood and fights like this isn´t what boxing needs.

Danish jr. lightweight Dennis Ceylan, 4-0, knocked out Italian boxer Marco Scalia, 3-1, with a right hook to the body after only 1.06 of the first of a scheduled four-rounder. Scalia went down and nodded no to his corner and the referee counted him out.

Swedish light heavyweight Erik Skoglund, 15-0 (9), knocked out Hungarian Attila Baran, 11-6, in the second of a scheduled ten-rounder. Skoglund took it easy in the first, switching to southpaw but upped the pace in the second, stuck to his ortodox style and scored with a right upercut and then a terrific right hook that sent Baran tumbling to the floor badly and the referee stopped it. It was ruled a knockout and the time was 2.02.

 

Skoglund is ready for better opponents and what´s stopping Sauerland from matching him tougher could be TV money - or lack thereof.

British cruiserweight prospect Deion Jumah, 2-0, outscored Ukrainan Igor Pylypenko, 3-13-2 over four. It was scored 40-36 on all cards but Jumah failed to shine as his awkward and bigger opponent was able to smother most of Jumah´s attacks.

 

It´s early in his career but Deion needs to work on keeping his chin down and get some more muscles on his body because he is rather small for his weight division.

Norwegian light heavyweight Tim-Robin Lihaug, 3-0, stopped once decent, now totally shot Czech Tomas Kugler, 12-28-1, 36 seconds into the third of a scheduled four rounder. Kugler was hurt and out on his feet for most part of the second and it should have been stopped there. Kugler had no legs under him when he finally went down in third and it was finally called off.

Shahriyar Weissi, 2-1, outscored Lasse Pedersen, 1-1, in a hardfought all-Danish matchup at cruiserweight. Pedersen, a southpaw, couldn´t find the range and was hurt by bodyshots finally going down in the third but got up and did well in a messy last round. The judges had it 39-36 twice and 40-35.

Local man Peter Gram made his pro debut in a cruiserweight fight set for four and stopped faded Czech journeyman Josip Jalusic, 10-27-1 on a fourth round knockout. Jalusic was under pressure against the ropes, caved in and as he sat down it was stopped 44 seconds into the round. Gram proved to be strong, in great shape but also somewhat stiff and and inexperienced.

Junior welterweight Puriya Haidari made his Danish debut after fighting and winning twice in Germany outboxed German Said Rahimi, 2-3, for three rounds of a fastpaced contest with more misses than hits. But in the fourth and final round, Said connected with a big right hand swing and Haidari was hurt, turned his back and got a standing eight count. He was able to fight on but was caught again with a big right hand at the end of the round but the referee ruled a no knockdown as he felt it had been to the back of the head. The judges had it 38-37 twice for Haidari and 38-37 for Rahimi.

Sauerland´s show at the Blue Water Arena opened with an upset win for Czech trialhorse Josef Obeslo, 3-7-1, who stopped previously unbeaten Hamburg businessman and pro boxer Ismail Ozen, 6-1, at 2.35 of the first. Obeslo was hurt by a right in the beginning and Ozen had everything his way but left himself open and was hurt by a right in neutral corner and went down as Obeslo poured it on. Ozen got a count but he was out on his feet and was rescued in his corner at 2.35.