By Per Ake Persson

Magdeburg, Germany - Ruslan Chagaev (34-2-1) stopped challenger Francesco Pianeta (31-2-1) at 2:57 of the very first round. The champion looked fresh, sharp and rejuvenated as he stalked the challenger in this all southpaw battle and landed with a good left hook.

Pianeta appaered to give up on himself early on and was later in the round caught by another left hook that appeared to land on the temple and he went down. Pianeta got up and was allowed to continue.

Chagaev kept coming and as he got Pianeta against the ropes he opened up and scored with two left hooks - none that seemed devastating - and the challenger collapsed on the floor. Referee Jean Louis Legland counted him out as he was rising in own corner and was very unsteady bleeding from a cut around the right eye.

The champion now have a rematch with Frez Oquendo coming and off this form it will be an easy win while Pianeta could face retirement. He does have skills but never had the confidence and toughness needed for top class boxing..

The show did well at the gate with a crowd of 5000 people attending.

Michael Wallisch (15-0) knocked out Italian Fabio Tuiach (27-5) at 0.31 of the second in a scheduled 12-rounder and won the vacant WBO European title. Tuiach went down and out from a left-right combination. Tuiach was floored twice in the first as well and just isn´t a natural heavyweight. On top of that he came in as a sub for Steffen Kretschmann.

Edmund Gerber moved to 25-2 and got a decent workout from Czech veteran Lubos Suda (33-10-1) before knocking him out with a solid 1-2 combination at 1.47 of the fifth round. It was scheduled for ten. Suda, a bulked up cruiser, came to survive and did that well with Gerber patiently stalking him getting closer with each round.

Gerber is now promoted by Terek Box Event but began his career with Sauerland.

Russian Apti Davtaev (9-0-1) won the vacant WBC CISBB title by knocking out Croatian Jakov Gospic (15-13) at 1.55 of the second in a scheduled ten-rounder. Davtaev warmed up in the first but finished the round with a nice combination and hurt Gospic with a right in the second and followed up. With only the ropes holding Gospic up referee Daniel Van De Wiele stepped in and counted over the Croatian, a count that continued to ten and out as Gospic walked on unsteady legs to his corner with a bad cut over the left eye.

Aleksander Dimitrenko (36-2) continued his comeback with a second round knockout over Hungarian Zoltan Csala (8-7). Dimitrenko finished his opponent with a right to the head and had Csala hurt earlier in the round with upercuts to the body, some that strayed low. Csala, a short and stocky brawler, was brave but out of his league.

Tom Schwarz (13-0) opened SES, Akhmat Box Promotion and Terek Box Event´s joint promotion at the Getec Arena with a points win over Konstantin Airich (22-12-2) after eight in an all German matchup. Schwarz, in his biggest test to date, showed good hanspeed and outboxed Airich for most of the fight but paced himself carefully and never really opened up, Airich kept coming but was seldom effective. It was scored 80-72 twice and 78-74.

This is a night of big boys and all six fights on the bill are in the heavyweight division.