Patrick Nielsen Puts Away Jose Pinzon in Fifth Round

By Per Ake Persson

MusikTeatret, Albertslund, Denmark - Albertlund's very own Patrick Nielsen, now, 21-0, retained the WBO and WBO I/C middleweight titles with a fifth round stoppage of Mexican Jose Pinzon, 24-6. Pinzon proved to be a strong, but crude slugger and he gave the Dane a few tough rounds but was worn down and outboxed at the end. Nielsen scored with a southpaw left late in the fifth and Pinzon went down. He was up but when referee Lahcen Oumghar asked him to walk forward he was very stiff-legged and it was stopped at 2.59. All three judges gave Pinzon the second and Nielsen confirmed afterwards he had felt the bodyshots from his strong but limited opponent.

Nielsen is now ranked highly by all four major world bodies but it is his # 3 rating with the WBO that appears most interesting.

Danish featherweight Dennis Ceylan, 9-0, floored Mexican Edgar Torres, 5-7-1, in the first but had to settle for a unanimous points win after eight fast paced rounds. Torres got stronger as the progressed while Ceylan posed too much and that made the fight closer than it was. It was scored 80-71 for Ceylan on all cards

Hometown favourite, cruiserweight Micki Nielsen, 11-0, knocked out German Bjoern Blaschke with a left uppercut to the solar plexus at 2.36 of the first. It was scheduled for eight. Nielsen, a southpaw, made an aggressive start but Blaschke avoided most coming his way to the head but the body shot caught him good and he sat down on one knee grimacing in pain as the referee counted him out.

Danish lightweight Rashid Kassem, 4-0, found the target right away and moments later floored Frenchman Maxime Roussel, 4-2-1. Roussel was hurt and his cornerman wisely threw in the towel while the count was still on. It was stopped at 2.35 of the first of a scheduled six-rounder.

The Swedish Princess, Klara Svensson, 12-0, won a unanimous decision over Bulgarian journeywoman Borislava Goranova, 6-37-1, after eight boring rounds of non-action boxing. Goranova came to survive and did it with ease. It was scored 80-72 on all cards.

Swedish welterweight Anthony Yigit, 6-0-1, outclassed Belorus Anton Bekish, 5-9, over six winning on scored of 59-55 twice and 60-54. Yigit, a southpaw, a former Olympian and an excellent boxer, couldn't hurt his opponent though and Bekish lasted the distance despite being under pressure in every round. Yigit might fight next week as well in Bamberg on the undercard to Hernandez vs. Alekseev.

Norwegian super middleweight Simen Smaadal, 8-0, impressed in taking apart German Leo Tchoula, 9-4, for a stoppage win at 57 seconds into the fourth of a scheduled six-rounder. Tchoula was outboxed and floored late in the third and twice more in the fourth before it was stopped.

Smaadal's compatriot Tim-Robin Lihaug, also at super middleweight and 5-1, opened this SPAG show at the Musikteatre in the center of this suburb to Copenhagen with a third round stoppage of German Steve Kroekel, 17-24.3. Kroekel was down once in all three rounds and took a bad beating looking banged up and shot to begin with. It was stopped at 0.47 with Kroekel rocked after taking a left hook. Lihaug is trained by Joey Gamache in Copenhagen and shows improvement. It was scheduled for six.