By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated light heavyweight prospect Artur Hein (8-0, 4 KOs) defeated Italian journeyman Massimiliano Saiani (24-18-3, 10 KOs) by an eight-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Burg-Waechter Castello, in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.
The final judges’ scores were 79-73, 79-73 and 79-74. Hein, 23, was outworked in every round of the fight by Saiani making it difficult to score many of the rounds. Hein showed good power through much of the bout, but he often held back with his shots and allowed Saiani to initiate much of the action.
Saiani appeared to win the three out of the first five rounds of the bout. However, after the 5th round, Saiani faded and Hein began to take control over the fight with his bigger punches. Saiani, 38, was cut over his left eyebrow in the 7th as a result of a clash of heads with Hein.
In the 1st round, Saiani fought well, raining a steady flow of shots down on the slower German. The punches had little power on them but due to the high number of punches landed it was enough for Saiani to control the round. In the last seconds, Hein landed a nice left-right combination. That was about the extent of what Hein did in the round.
Saiani continued landing massive amounts of punches in the 2nd round, throwing jabs and long right hands. Hein, again, did little in the round until the last seconds when he landed a good combination. It wasn’t enough to win the round but it was at least a start for Hein.
I was wondering at this point whether Hein had sustained a hand injury because he was fighting like he was 100 years old and doing zilch on offense. However, having seen Hein’s last several fights, I realized that this was pretty much par for the course. He throws punches like an old miser, refraining from punching until things are looking bleak for him.
Hein fought a lot better in the 4th after taking a tongue lashing in between rounds, and ended up tagging Saiani with some big right hand shots. Hein showed good power, but he limited his offense to one punch at a time and seemed incapable of throwing combinations.
The thing of it was if he had put together a small furry of shots, Hein would have had an excellent chance of taking out the Italian, because of Hein’s good power. However, the chances of that happening were remote given Hein’s history of being terribly economical with his punches.
Saiani appeared to do the better work in the 5th, landing short combinations and outworking Hein by a huge margin. Hein landed a big right to the body early in the round, but did little after that other than throw a few jabs.
Hein continued his one-paced offense, throwing single shots and fighting in a leisurely style. There was no urgency in his offense, as if he knew he had the fight in the bag and didn’t need to fight hard. As it turns out, Hein did have the fight in control because the judges were giving him almost every round despite the fact that he looked to be losing every round. It helps to be the hometown fighter, I guess.
In the 7th and 8th rounds, Saiani tired out and threw far less punches than before. The sad part is that he still outworked Hein even then. Hein’s anemic work rate didn’t look quite as bad as it did earlier, and he was able to stand out more with his bigger shots because of Saiani’s slightly diminished work rate.
Overall, it was another disappointing performance from Hein. I think he doesn’t have what it takes to be a top performer at the pro level or even a good local fighter in Germany. There are too many other good fighters out there and Hein doesn’t come close to them in showing potential. His German management might want to consider cutting their losses and going in a different direction, because I can’t see Hein improving much beyond where he is now a fighter.