Heiland Knocks Out Abalos In Six, Remains In Title Hunt

By Jake Donovan

Jorge Sebastian Heiland overcame a 10-month inactive period and a brief in-arena power outage to knockout overmatched Claudio Abalos in six rounds Saturday evening in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

A slow start eventually gave way to a dominant performance for Heiland, who was fighting for the first time since a stunning knockout win over Matthew Macklin on the road in Ireland last November.

Abalos was game for the cause, but could only hang with the middleweight contender in the early going. Once Heiland was able to get untracked, there was no stopping him - at least for as long as he could see what was in front of him. 

The fight was delayed by nearly five rounds after the lights went out prior to the start of round five. Power was eventually restored, as was the action in the ring as both corners did their best to keep their fighters fresh.

Heiland picked up the steam in round five and then closed the show one round later. A straight left hand put Abalos flat on his back for the bout's lone knockdown. He bravely beat the count, but not before twice stumbling while in best efforts to remain upright. 

The referee didn't like what he saw and immediately stopped the fight at that point. 

Heiland improves to 26-4-2 (14KOs) with the win, his fifth straight. 

The co-feature saw Jonathan Oliva barely escape with his unbeaten record intact, as the super welterweight prospect was fortunate to walk away with a split decision draw versus Diego Chaves (not to be confused by the welterweight contender and his countryman by the same name). 

Scores were 59-58 Chaves, 60-58 Oliva and 59-59 even in an entertaining six-round affair which—as the final cards indicate—featured several close rounds and little from which to choose as both had their months every step of the way. 

The crowd sympathized with the underdog, as Chavez (14-10-4) delivered perhaps the performance of his career. Sadly, he remains winless in his past five starts (0-3-2 over that stretch) although verdict does more for his career than for Oliva (8-0-2, 6KOs), who fights to his second consecutive draws—both times in fights he should have handily won. 

FULL CARD

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com.

Twitter: @JakeNDaBox

Facebook Page: JakeBScene