German-based Cruiserweight Firat Arslan defeated World Boxing Association cruiserweight champion Virgil Hill tonight in Germany, winning a unanimous decision over the 43 year-old champion Hill. The final judges’ scores were 118-110, 116-113 and 117-111, giving Arslan the victory. Arslan used heavy pressure to take the fight to Hill, hitting him constantly with hooks and staying on him and giving him very little rest. It had been eight months since Hill last fought, losing a ridiculous decision to 43 year-old German Henry Maske, a bout in which Hill appeared to win handily.
This time, however, Arslan left no doubt, as he clearly won the fight, outworking Hill in every round of the fight and making him look every bit of his 43 years.
Arslan, a muscular fighter with little power, hurt Hill in both the ninth and 10th round, as his high punch output style offense finally paid off for him. The punches didn’t appear that hard, for the most part. It seemed to be more of a case that Hill was simply exhausted from being forced to fight three minutes of every round. Afterwards, Hill hinted at retirement, saying “We’re going to look at that,” Hill said.
Since winning the cruiserweight title in an upset of Valery Brudov in January 2006, Hill has seldom fought. In fact, he didn’t fight until 14 months later, and even then it was the circus bout against Maske, which didn’t count as a title defense. Only tonight, almost two years later, did Hill finally defend his title for the first time.
