By Erik Schmidt: Making the second defense of his WBC International welterweight title, Turkish born Selcuk Aydin (17-0, 14 KOs) destroyed Ecuadorian Luis Hernandez (22-4, 15 KOs) in the 1st round tonight at the Kugelbake-Halle, Cuxhaven, in Niedersachsen, Germany. Aydin, 25, known as “mini-Tyson for his incredible punching power, dropped the 35 year-old Hernandez with a short right hand in the 1st round. Seconds later, after Hernandez got up on wobbly legs and the referee allowed the fight to continue, Aydin dropped Hernandez for a second time in the round after connecting with three consecutive right hands to the head to send him down.
This time, after Hernandez got up and was unable to stand with staggering around the ring, referee Guido Cavalleri stopped the fight at 2:32 of the 1st round.
Aydin, ranked #5 in the WBC and #12 in the WBA and #14 in the IBF, it proved to be an impressive win. Up until the knockdown occurred, the round had belong entirely to Hernandez, who both jabbed and landed a mess of hard body shots against a strangely quiet Aydin.
It seemed off that Aydin was doing nothing, because he usually jumps on his opponents in the first round and tries to take them out immediately with big power shots. However, by fighting in a subdued manner, Aydin was able to set a trap for Hernandez later in the round when he was least suspecting.
After taking a lot of jabs and body shots from Hernandez, Aydin pivoted to the side of Hernandez and landed a short right to the head just as Hernandez was crouching down to duck a shot. The punch hurt Hernandez badly. However, to ensure that he went down, Aydin grabbed Hernandez by the head with both gloves and pulled him down on the on canvas.
Normally, this wouldn’t be ruled a knockdown but for some reason this referee – for whatever reason – decided to let the knockdown stand. It was clear that Hernandez was hurt after getting tagged by Aydin’s right hand but the wrestling take down shouldn’t have been allowed. It didn’t matter though, because after Hernandez got to his feet, he was unable to stand without staggering all around the ring.
The referee somehow in his kind heart decided to let the fight continue for a little while longer, allowing Aydin to go after Hernandez once the action resumed. Aydin then landed three straight right hands to the head to put Hernandez down for the final time. Referee Guido Cavalleri then stopped the fight at 2:32, with Hernandez reeling all around the ring unable to stand straight without staggering.
It was a good win for Aydin, no doubt, but it’s hard to tell how good he really is because Hernandez wasn’t a good measuring stick to judge Aydin by. I do know before this fight, Aydin has fought generally weak opposition in Germany and after three years, he’s still not fought anyone closely resembling a live body. My hope is that he isn’t continued to be brought along in this manner like so many other German based fighters because it can’t help Aydin’s career to be matched up with so many poor fighters.