By Per Ake Persson

Sporthalle, Hamburg, Germany - Unheralded Swedish light heavyweight Sven Fornling, 15-1, upset the much more experienced IBO champ Karo Murat, 32-4-1, and won the title in a dramatic fight that saw both men down.

Fornling floored Murat in the first with a sharp right hand counter but it appeared to be a flash knockdown and the champion smiled as he got up. Murat came back and had the challenger hurt in the second scoring with heavy left hooks.

However, after that it appeared the Murat injured his left shoulder or left arm as he didn´t use left much after that. Instead he stalked Fornling who boxed more or less effectively on the move but throwing lots of punches and winning punches on workrate.

Murat kept plodding but was seldom effective. However, Fornling tired down the stretch and but then Murat punched his opponent behind the head and had a point deducted in round eleven.

The fight looked won for Fornling but in the last round he fell apart and suffered a knockdown and then a bad cut as Murat poured it on with his right hand only but he appeared to punch himself out and Fornling lasted the distance and won on scores of 115-110 twice and 116-109.

Unbeaten welterweight and local hero Sebastian Formella, 20-0, closed out EC Boxing and Michael Wollenberg´s show at the Hamburger Sporthalle with a unanimous decision over Namibian veteran Bethuel Ushona, 36-7-1, to win the vacant WBO Global (not to be confused with the World) title.

It was scored 119-109 twice and 117-111 in a no knockdown affair dominated by Formella´s speed and superior footwork.