By Per Ake Persson
On June 3 in Aschersleben, Germany: German southpaw Dirk Dzemski regained the NBA 160 lb title with a ninth round stoppage of Tanzanian Said Yazidu. As Yazidu, way behind on points and with a swollen left eye, complained of headache after the eighth American referee Brian Garry decided, quite correctly, not to take any chances and called matters off. It goes into the books as a ninth round tko. Yazidu attended the press conference and appeared to be allright.
Dzemski, back after the serious hand injury that cost him the title last year, looked fresh and sharp working behind the jab. Yazidu was fast and had a fine left but could never really offset the German, who was the bigger man. Both did their share of low blows but in the later rounds Dzemki´s heavier punches began to tell.
In the co-headliner, with little interest to the local fans at the sold out Ballhaus Arena, Hungarian jr middle Mihaly Kotai retained the WBF belt and added the IBO title to the collection after an unanimous
decision after twelve hardfought rounds of boxing over Argentinian Raul Bejarano. It sure wasn´t pretty as Kotai leaped in with a lead right followed by a - at times - very dangerous head and both were guilty of a lot of things on the inside. But the overall picture was that Kotai, who can punch a bit, landed with the cleaner, harder punches and after landing with three right handers in the fifth flush on Bejarano´s chin,
one had to wonder what kept the challenger up. At the end it was scored 117-112, 118-111 and 118-111.
Czech jr middle Lukas Konecny stopped Estonian Dimitri Protkunas in the seventh.
Cruiser Enad Licina stopped Belorussian Denis Solomka in two. Solomka, a decent fighter at 168 and 175, just couldn´t take Licina´s bodyshots.
Norman Schuster returned after a bad arm injuy and outscored Joseph Sovijus over, jr middles.
Lightheavy Mahamed Ali made his prodebut and looked sharp but had nothing in front of him in Hungarian stiff Szabolcs Geregely who was stopped in the first.
SES promoted and the wins for Dzemski and Schuster, both from nearby Halle, left everybody happy.
Next show is July 9 in Magdeburg where supermiddle Robert Stieglitz headlines against an opponent to be named. Stieglitz has been named the best of the IBF I/C champs and a world title fight is coming closer.
Jr middle Marco Schulze will take on Austrian Gotthard Hinteregger and female supermiddle Natascha Ragosina face American Valerie Mahfood in a WIBF eliminator.
In early or mid-July Czech Lukas Konecny will go for the WBO I/C title in Prague. Slovenian welter Jan Zaveck will be featured in the co-headliner.
Russian heavy Nikolai Valuev will not be on Sauerland Event´s July 16 show and the planned showdown with Henry Akinwande is off. Valuev, the WBA # 1 will instead concentrate on a possible interim title fight in September or go straight for John Ruiz.
Supermiddle Malik Dziarra, signed to SES, will be on Spotlight Boxing´s show in Cuxhaven June 28.
Dutch middle Raymond Joval unanimously outscored Belgian Lansana Diallo to win the vacant IBO title on June 3, in Germany. The fight was even and well fought all the way with Diallo at best even and then trailing by at most four points before ending the bout a two point loser at the end.
On June 3 in Lvov, Ukraine: A hot clash at welter between Maxim Nesterenko and Roman Dzuman was called off very late after Dzuman suffered a back injury that will keep him out for two months.
