By Per Ake Persson

Halle an der Saale, Germany: Thomas Ulrich won the vacant EBU light heavyweight title with a tenth round stoppage of Frenchman Rachid Kanfouah after an exellent fight that was the co-headliner of Universum´s sold out (4500 spectators) at the Brandberge Arena. It was quality vs quantity as Ulrich had the harder but fewer punches while Kanfouah kept a high workrate. Ulrich was almost down in the eighth, but came back well later in the round and got the best of some blistering exchanges. Kanfouah appeared to be the stronger of the two though and kept punching, but all of a sudden in the tenth he fell apart as the rejuvenated Ulrich poured it on. Kanfouah looked hurt, but was moving away from his opponent when the towel came in ending the fight at 2.30 of the round. After nine it was scored 86-85 and 87-85 for Ulrich and 87-86 for Kanfouah.

In the mainevent, WIBF flyweight champ Regina Halmich unanimously outscored Hungarian Reka Kempf after ten. It was scored 99-92, 98-93 and 99-91. There were no knockdowns and little drama as Halmich outworked her opponent with the crowd cheering her on. ZDF was calculating on about eight million watching the very
popular Halmich doing her thing.

Czech cruiserweight Rudolf Kraj retained the WBC Int´l title stopping Argentinian Cesar David Crenz in the eighth round. Crenz was down in the fifth, twice in the seventh and again in the eighth before it was stopped. He didn´t particularly hurt but had no chance of winning.

Norman Schuster retained the German welterweight title with a first round knockout of Mike Reissmann. Reissmann was floored three times, the final knockdown came from
a left hook to the body.

Karolina Lukasik won the vacant WIBF jr middleweight title with a dubious split points win over American Jill Emery. It was scored 99-92 and 97-93 for Lukasik and
96-94 for Emery, who kept trying in a fight where few effective punches were thrown.

EBU heavyweight champ Vladimir Virchis knocked out American Marcus McGee in the third of a scheduled eight-rounder.

Gbenga Oloukun outscored Daniel Peret over six in another heavyweight fight. Peret finished swollen, but not cut and stated he would certainly be ready to fight Johan Thorbjornsson on January 27 in Gothenburg.