By Jim Dower: IBF cruiserweight champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez (26-1, 13 KO’s) defeated former International Boxing Federation cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham (24-4, 12 KO’s) in their IBF ordered rematch on Saturday night at the Fraport Arena in Frankfurt, Germany.

The final judges’ scores were 115-111, 116-110 and 116-110, all for the 27-year-old champion Hernandez. Cunningham, 35, was knocked down twice in the 4th round, and hurt in the 12th in this seesaw fight. Hernandez won five of the first six rounds, but gassed out after the 6th and lost the seventh through ninth rounds against the surging Cunningham.

It looked as if Hernandez was going to continue to lose the rounds, but he came back and won the 10th and the 12th rounds with some hard left hands. In the 12th, Hernandez flurried on Cunningham and had him hurt from some solid left hands to the head. Cunningham came back a little to land some hard shots of his own after Hernandez punched himself out, but he wasn’t able to do much as Hernandez tied him up and wrestled to end the fight.

Hernandez definitely deserved this win. He looked a lot better in this fight compared to their previous fight back in October 2011. Cunningham didn’t throw enough punches and looked a little muscle bound at times.

***

Alekseev decisions Licina

Former 2004 Olympian for Russia Alexander Alekseev (23-2, 20 KO’s) defeated Enad Licina (21-4, 11 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision to capture the vacant European Boxing Union cruiserweight title. The final scores were 116-112, 118-112 and 118-110. The scores were rather generous for the German-based Serbian Licina because all I could see him winning was one round in the entire fight. He was badly overmatched against the southpaw Alekseev and took a real pounding in this fight and ended up with a swollen face.

There wasn’t much action in the opening round but Alekseev controlled the little action that took place. In the 2nd round, Licina walked into some hard jabs from Alekseev that bloodied his nose. The remainder of the round saw Licina soaking up one-way punishment from Alekseev in the form of hooks to the body, combinations to the head and hard jabs.
Licina came back strong in the 3rd and 4th rounds, landing big right hands that backed Alekseev up and had him fighting a little more cautiously.

Alekseev came on from the 5th round on to dominate the action with his combinations and counter punching. Alekseev would land hard right and left hand counters each time Licina would try to get something going. By the 10th, Licina was no longer throwing as many punches and looked completely defeated. The 11th and 12th were completely one-sided rounds with Alekseev easily controlling the action and doing whatever he wanted to do.

***

Gutknecht defeats Uzelkov

European Boxing Union light heavyweight champion Eduard Gutknecht (23-0, 9 KO’s) won an impressive 12 round unanimous decision over challenger Vyacheslav Uzelkov (25-2, 16 KO’s). The final judges’ scores were 117-111, 115-113, and 116-112, all for the 29-year-old German-based Gutknecht.

I scored it 118-110 for Gutknecht based on his better work rate, better jab, and a lot better boxing skills. Uzelkov, 32, was looking to score a one-punch knockout all fight long and failed to make the adjustments that he needed to when it became apparent that he wasn’t going to be able to score a knockout.

Gutknecht dominated the first five rounds of the fight with his jab, combinations and forward pressure. He fought effortlessly and wasn’t in the least bit bothered by Uzelkov’s pressure and occasional big right hands. Uzelkov fought well in the 6th round, landing some big bombs and immediately coming in close to clinch.

However, he lacked the work rate needed to really do much. It was as if he expected Gutknecht to topple over from a single shot like most of the overmatched 2nd and 3rd tier opposition had previously done during Uzelkhov’s career.

Gutknecht could actually fight and wasn’t going to be bowled over from a single shot and instead he kept firing back jabs and combinations. Gutknecht fought well in the 7th, but in the next round Uzelkhov came back strong again landing some nice shots. However, from round nine through twelve, Gutknecht dominated the remainder of the fight with his better work rate and jag and really looked good.

In other action on the card:

Troy Ross UD 8 Lukasz Rusiewicz
David Graf UD 6 Paul Morris
Mateusz Masternak TKO 4 Michael Simms