By Alexey Sukachev
At the Sportpark Arena in Ljubljana, defending IBF welterweight champion Dejan Zaveck was a fresher fighter from the start. He engaged into a vicious punch exchange with the IBF #1 mandatory challenger Rafal Jackiewicz from round one. Both contestants weren't active, hidin much behind their tight blocks and offering little offensive to entertain a pro-Zaveck partizan crowd in Slovenian capital. The champion was just a little more active and his punch output was superior to that of Jackiewicz. Round three was different as Zaveck was clearly more active for the first time in the fight. he imposed his will on the Polish veteran and landed some telling blows to earn a respect from the durable challenger.
The former kickboxer got considerably more aggressive in the fourth to take that round in his favour though Zaveck did enough to make it closer. In the fifth, there was another turnaround as the Slovenian connected with some crisp combos both to the head and body while Jackiewicz was punching mostly with single blows. Rounds six to eight were almost identical: Zaveck was an aggressor and was more active boxer of two. The Pole showed tremendous defensive skills but was too reluctant in attack mode to take those round, thought the eighth stanza was probably in his favour. In round nine Zaveck displayed his seemingly endless stamina to outpunch Jackiewicz, who instead was looking better in the tenth. Rounds eleven and twelve were close enough but the Pole just didn't enough to deliver some proofs to sceptics about his fighting ability. He was precise but just didn't let his hands go.
After twelve hard-fought rounds, Howard John Foster (UK), Zdravko Milojevic (Serbia) and this reporter (Russia) scored it 117-111 - for the Slovenian, while Polish judge Leszek Jankowiak ridiculously saw a draw in this one: 114-114. Zaveck gets revenge for a 2008 split decision loss to Jackiewicz.
In a fight for a vacant World Boxing Federation International light heavyweight title, Slovenian Denis Simcic (24-1, 14 KOs) got the better of Hungarian Istvan Varga (17-12, 5 KOs) in eight brutal give-and-take rounds of action. Simcic was an aggressor trying to tag his foe mostly with his straight left hand but also tried to do some damage with his right hand. Varga was ready to rumble with a local favorite but he was a little bit slow and too widely opened not to get hit by Slovenian's punches. Both fighters had their moments in first five rounds but as the fight progressed, Simcic got better and better with each round landing series of punches, thrown with really bad intentions. The end came at about 1:30 of the eighth round, when Simcic's left had pinned Varga badly to the ropes. A huge right hand and a another killer right ended matters for the Hungarian who falled hardly to the deck in the corner. He was able to get up but was too wobbly and too exhausted to continue. TKO 8 - for Denis Simcic.
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Light-hitting cruiserweight Goran Delic (17-0, 3 KOs), competing at heavyweight limit, was unable to stop game Hungarian Attila Makula (3-6,1 KO) even despite hitting him with everything but a kitchen sink. The sole score of referee Juergen Langos was 60:54 in favour of 35-year old Bosnian.
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25-year old Montenegrin Predrag Radosevic (20-0, 8 KOs) stopped Austrian veteran Thomas Hengstberger (14-29-3, 3 KOs) in three one-sided rounds. Hengstberger was down once. The fight was held at light heavyweight limit. It's interesting that the same Austrian was blitzed in one by reigning WBA featherweight champion Yurirokis Gamboa three years ago.
