In four straight fights over the past year, Kolbeinn Kristinsson has seen the same outcome play out. The Icelandic heavyweight prospect has had all of his opponents retire on their stools, a pattern which makes “The Ice Bear” joke that he is the heavyweight “No-Mas-Chenko.”
“It must suck to fight me, I guess,” the 37-year-old from Reykjavik jests after the previously unbeaten Mike Lehnis remained on his stool after the sixth round of their fight on Saturday night in Nuremberg, Germany.
After a slow start in which the German southpaw Lehnis, now 8-1 (5 KOs), got off to an early lead with his faster hands, the 6’6” Kristinsson began breaking his opponent down by imposing his size and strength. Kristinsson heeded the advice of his trainers, Dadi Asthorsson and Arnor Grimsson, who ordered him to show a bit more urgency in his first 12-round bout.
“They were in the corner like, ‘yo step to it, beat him up, get this shit over with.’ And that’s what I did,” said Kristinsson, 18-0 (12 KOs). “As soon as I hit him with the body shots it was basically over.”
Kristinsson finally put his opponent down with a right hand in the fifth round, and was declared the winner when Lehnis didn’t answer the bell for the seventh. The win was Kristinsson’s third straight over an opponent with a respectable record, after he stopped the 7-1 Mika Mielonen in five rounds last September, and the 8-1 Piotr Cwik after the first round last December.
Heading into Germany, Kristinsson knew he’d have an uphill battle to deal with from the hometown officials. Still, even he was surprised by what he saw in the ring. Kristinsson took exception to some behavior from the referee, like pulling an exhausted Lehnis to his feet after they both were tangled up and fell down, and stopping the action as Kristinsson was landing power punches to address a piece of loose tape on Kristinsson’s gloves.
“After the knockdown he was helping him out. He was clinching and trying to just hold on and regain strength, the referee was not breaking for a long time, and then in the corner he took a long time to get out the corner. It took like a minute to get his gumshield back in,” said Kristinsson.
Now a promotional free agent, Kristinsson is managed by the Finland-based Markus Lammi, who tells him there are some plans being worked on behind the scenes for bigger opportunities.
With professional boxing still banned in his home country, Kristinsson must look abroad for opportunities to move his career forward. He says his dream opportunity would be to find his way to Japan for a pro bout, but he thinks a more realistic goal in the short term is getting into world contention by fighting for a regional belt from one of the four major sanctioning bodies.
And who would he like to face next?
“I have no preference really. They all give up anyway,” said Kristinsson.