By Per Ake Persson
Rome, Italy: Danish cruiserweight Johny Jensen, a huge underdog, won the EBU title with a second round stoppage of Italian Vincenczo Cantarore in front of perhaps 7000 fans at the huge Palalomattico. Both men started slowly, Jensen scored with a good left jab to the body but from then on - up until the end that is - the fight belonged to Cantatore. Jensen, hands high, blocked some of the punches but the champion gained confidence as the challenger seemed fall apart mentally.
In the second it was more of the same. Both men missed, Jensen tried to work the body but was shaken by a left-right-left hook combination. Jensen retreated, the crowd cheered, the confident champion had a killer look in his eyes but then walked into a right hand and was hurt. With hindsight it should have been stopped right then and there but as it was Candatory tried to punch, wobbled, Jensen - as surprised as anyone else - scored again and the Italian began to slide against the ropes. The Dane landed again, and again, with British referee Ian John Lewis watching. Cantatore finally went down with Jensen landing with a final punch with the champion on the floor. If ten and out actually was tolled I couldn´t tell but to me it seemed as if it was stopped. Time given as 1.12.
The Danes began to cheer with the crowd partly in an uproar, some felt it was stopped too soon, others blamed the punch when Cantatore was already floored, and one spectator seemed to blame "cosa nostra" involvement. But to this observer it seemed as if Jensen, a decent puncher, caught an aging fighter on the right spot at the right time. Once Cantatore realized he had been stopped he tried to resume fighting but was on very shaky legs and it took several minutes before he was back in the real world.
Jr. middleweight Emanuele Della Rosa stopped Belgian Hicham Nafil in the sixth after a foul filled contest where Della Rosa, got away with a lot of things that should have seen him DQ'd anywhere else. As it was Nafil had to retire due to a shoulder injury caused by Della Rosa´s wrestling tacticts.
Danish heavyweight Claus Bertino opened the show and walked through Bulgarian Anton Simeonov for a second round TKO win.