By Per Ake Persson
WBC super middleweight champ Markus Beyer outboxed American challenger Omar Sheika for an unanimous decision. The scores were 116-112, 116-112 and 118-112. Even the last score seemed generous to Sheika who was outboxed and outhustled all the way. There were no knockdowns, but Sheika was cut on the right cheek in the first round after a hard southpaw left from the champion.
"I just couldn´t get off" said the swollen and bruised Sheika afterwards. Beyer was unmarked and confirmed that outside of a clash of heads, he had taken very few punches to the head. It took Sheika almost five rounds before he could land with a meaningful punch.
Oktay Urkal retained the EBU welterweight title with a close, but well deserved decision over tough Russian Maxim Nesterenko. The scores were 114-113, 115-112 and 116-111. Urkal was hurt and floored in the eleventh, but recovered and fought back at the end of the round. Nesterenko kept trying throughout in a fastpaced entertaining fight.
The show opener saw a cruiserweight clash between Marco Huck and Ruediger May, both Germans and signed to Sauerland Event. Huck dominated the action over his veteran opponent who was hurt and took a standing eight count in the tenth and final round.
Heavyweight Rene Dettweiler outscored big Ralf Packheiser in another all-German matchup.
Alexander Povetkin and Yoan Pablo Hernandez, both big amateur stars, won their bouts, but failed to impress. Povetkin, at heavyweight, stopped American Serron Fox in the fourth while Hernandez defeated Czech David Vicena by TKO in the second round.
The show drew about 3500 fans to the ICC. Sauerland Event promoted.
