By Erik Schmidt: Fringe heavyweight prospect Konstantin Airich (11-1-1, 9 KOs) defeated former cruiserweight Alexander Jakob (25-5-1, 15 KOs) by an unimpressive eight-round unanimous decision on Tuesday night at the Kugelbake-Halle, Cuxhaven, in Niedersachsen, Germany. Airich, 30, dropped the 40 year-old Jakob with a weak left-right combination in the 2nd round.
However, other than that, Airich struggled for most of the eight round bout, failing to let his hands go in any regularity, plodding forward slowly and getting hit often by Jakob’s long jab. Airich, though, was saved by his harder punching, which compensated for the fact that he was getting out-landed by a significant margin in every round by the pudgy Jakob.
Airich, 6’1″, originally from Kazakhstan and now fighting out of Germany, ate a lot of jabs from Jakob in the first round and seemed to have tremendous problems trying to get in punching range against the taller 6’3″ Jakob. Though listed as 6’1″, Airich is probably in reality closer to 5’11”, which made him look almost like a cruiserweight against a heavyweight in this fight.
In the second round, Jakob continued to dominate the slower, plodding Airich until late in the round when Airich surprised him with a compact left-right combination that dropped Jakob down hard on the canvas.
The punches weren’t thrown with any kind of power, but they knocked Jakob down as if they were thrown with incredible power. Most probably Jakob wasn’t prepared for the punches and didn’t see them coming, because there’s really no other explanations I can think of for him being knocked down by such soft shots like the ones that Airich threw.
After Jakob got up, Airich attempted unsuccessfully to finish him off, but due to his lack of height and reach, he had trouble getting in punching range and was easily picked off by the long jabs thrown by Jakob. In the 3rd round, Jakob fought well, jabbing Airich frequently, staying on the outside and foiling Airich’s attempts to land his short punches.
At midpoint of the round, Airich stepped on Jakob’ right foot, causing Jakob to twist his angle and slightly injure it. However, he was able to continue fighting after a momentary break in the action. In rounds four through six, Airich got the better of Jakob with hard shots to the head and body. He was still getting hit with an enormous amount of jabs, but his power shots were enough to win the rounds.
However, all of the rounds were close as Airich looked very average and unimpressive. In the 7th round, Airich appeared to take the round off, throwing almost zero punches in the round. As such, Jakob took advantage of the situation by pounding Airich without stop with jabs to the head.
In the 8th round, with the fight seemingly very close, Airich came on and landed huge right hands to take the round. Jakob, though, fought well in the last minute of the round, nailing Airich with big left hands and bloodying his nose. The final judges’ scores were 76-75, 78-75 and 79-74, all for Airich.
In other action, undefeated heavyweight prospect Steffen Kretschmann (13-0, 12 KOs) stopped Marcel Zeller (21-3, 20 KOs) in the 2nd round of a scheduled 10-round bout. Kretschmann, 28, a tall 6’5” German heavyweight and former amateur star, looked fast and powerful in the first round, knocking Zeller down twice in the round with big shots.
In the 2nd round, Kretschmann finished Zeller off with a flurry of big shots, ending with a left uppercut to the head and a left to the body as Zeller covered up in the corner. Referee Ernst Salzgebe then stepped in and halted the action at 0:42 of the round. Kretschmann looked much improved on his recent bouts, showing a lot of hand speed, power and a fierce attack in the opening round.
His main flaw previously was his slow, plodding style of fighting, but against Zeller, it appears that Kretschmann had worked on his deficiencies and came out blazing with fast punches, knocking Zeller, 33, down with a big right-left combination in the opening seconds of the bout.
Shortly after that, Kretschmann knocked Zeller’s mouthpiece out with a big right hand. For the remainder of the round, Kretschmann switched from body to head, pounding Zeller with big body shots and uppercuts to the head.
Near the end of the round, Kretschmann dropped Zeller for the second time in the round when he caught Zeller against the ropes and dropped him with a big right hooks to the head sending him down. In the second round, Kretschmann went after Zeller, hooking him to the head with right hands and driving him to the ropes.
Once he had him against the ropes, Kretschmann nailed him with a big left uppercut to the head followed by a left to the midsection, causing referee Ernst Salzgebe to step in and halt the bout. Overall, Kretschmann looked very impressive, much better than Airich and good enough to beat many of the top 10 fighters in the heavyweight division.
At 28, Kretschmann looks like he’s ready to step it up against better competition in the division. At 6’5”, he’s got both the size and power to be a force in the division or some time to come.