By Erik Schmidt: Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Steffen Kretschmann (12-0, 11 KOs) took out American heavyweight Otis Tisdale (25-22-1, 15 KOs) with a big body shot in the 5th round on Friday night at the Kugelbake Halle, Cuxhaven, in Niedersachsen, Germany. The 6’5″ Kretschmann, 28, had too much power for the aging 39 year-old Tisdale, knocking him down twice in the bout – once in the 4th and another time in the 5th – with hard body shots. Tisdale took the Kretschmann’s power shots to the head without any problem, but when he was hit to the body, it was a serious problem for Tisdale. However, Kretschmann looked slow, robotic and landed big power for a heavyweight his size.
Kretschmann, southpaw, had it easy in the first round, stalking Tisdale and hitting him with straight left hands and a pawing jab. Unfortunately, Kretschmann rarely was able to get any real power on his shots and caused Tisdale little problems when throwing head shots. Part of the problem appears to be Kretschmann’s stand up style of fighting, in which he stands straight up without bending his knees.
By fighting this way, he takes away a lot of his ability to punch hard. Unlike a tall fighter like Vitali Klitschko, who can still generate a lot of power despite fighting in an upright manner, Kretschmann seems unable to get anything on his punches to make him a more dangerous fighter. Despite his lack of power, he didn’t have anything to worry about from the American, as he was throwing nothing back at him and looked for the most part like a sparring partner rather than a live opponent.
Tisdale attacked Kretschmann briefly in the 2nd round, causing him to back away quickly. Kretschmann then came back later and landed some good right uppercuts and left hands to the head. Kretschmann would continue to retreat whenever Tisdale would even look as if he were going to attack him, which made me question his courage more than a little. Tisdale was basically a non-threat, yet he could cause Kretschmann to flee just at the hint of aggression on his part. I can only imagine what Kretschmann would do if he had to fight someone good like Samuel Peter or Wladimir Klitschko. He’d probably be running circles around the ring.
By the 3rd round, Tisdale began showing signs of swelling under his left eye, probably from the left hands that Kretschmann was hitting him with. Like I mentioned, the punches were particularly hard, but given that he was getting hit an awful lot, it’s not surprising that Tisdale’s face would start showing signs of swelling sooner or later. Tisdale fought well in the first minute for the round, hitting Kretschmann with some right hands. For the remainder of the round, Kretschmann fought in a safety first manner, throwing one punch at a time, mostly jabs and looking ready to flee if Tisdale would get ready to land a punch of his own.
Kretschmann hurt Tisdale with several hard body shots in the 4th round, and the dropped him with a short right hand to the head. Tisdale appeared hurt more by the body shots and would have gone down likely if he were hit by a feather at that point. After he got up, Kretschmann tried to finish him off with more body shots, mostly right hooks, but Tisdale took them well. As if in frustration at him not going down, Kretschmann pushed him down at the end of the round.
In the 5th round, Tisdale was staggered by a left hand to the body early on, sending him to the ropes, where Kretschmann began digging body shots one after another. He then followed him around the ring hitting him with weak jabs and left hands. Finally, he landed a good left to Tisdale’s midsection, which sent him down for the final time. He looked hurt, tired and beaten and didn’t even attempt to beat the count.