By Erik Schmidt: Middleweight contender Mahir Oral (26-2-2, 10 KO’s) defeated German Alexander Sipos (19-8-2, 9 KO’s) by a six-round unanimous decision on Friday night at the Gran Casino, in Castellon Comunidad Valenciana, Spain. The final judges’ scores were 59-55, 59-55 and 59-55. I personally had Sipos winning the fight by three rounds to two with one even. Sipos was penalized one point for slapping with his punches in the 3rd round.
The penalty seemed needless, because Sipos’ punches didn’t look like slapping shots to me. However, the referee was really on Sipos during that round, and warned him twice in the round before taking away a point. The strange thing is, Sipos continued to throw the same slapping punches (if you want to call them that) for the remainder of the fight and wasn’t further penalized.
In the 1st round, Sipos aggressively came out strong, taking the fight to Oral with combinations. Oral looked like a deer caught in the headlights for the most part. He just looked out of it, like he still hadn’t quite recovered from his 10th round knockout defeat that he suffered in his last bout against then International Boxing Federation middleweight champion Arthur Abraham in June.
Several times in the opening round, Sipos came after Oral and landed a string of hard combinations to the head. For his part, Oral was limited to a punch here and there. Although he clearly had the better punching form, Oral’s work rate wasn’t nearly good enough for me to give him the round.
In the 2nd round, Sipos controlled the action in the first minute of action with his aggressive attacks. Oral came back in the 2nd half of the round to land some solid shots, and win the round. In the 3rd round, Sipos was warned for throwing a low blow and then was deducted a point for slapping to the body.
Beyond that, Sipos appeared to win the round with his better work rate and punches landed. But with the point deduction, the round ended up being even. Oral looked passive though much of the round, and nothing like a top tier middleweight. In the 4th and 5th rounds, Sipos did the better work, attacking Oral constantly.
In the 5th, Sipos almost knocked Oral down with a left hand that sent Oral flying across the ring into the ropes where he was able to regain his footing. Oral fought well in the 6th round and landed some nice right hands to the head of Sipos. It was by far Oral’s best round of the fight.
It’s too bad that he waited to long to get started. Like I said, I thought that Sipos clearly won the fight but I’m not surprised that Oral got the decision because he’s the better known fighter. He has a lot of work to do if he wants to remain a top contender because he looked pretty awful.
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German heavyweight Steffen Kretschmann (14-1, 13 KO’s) stopped Ergin Solmaz (3-22-3, 2 KO’s) in the 4th round. The bout was stopped after the 4th round due to an ear problem with Solmaz’s right ear. He was nailed by a big left hook from Kretschmann in the 4th round that instantly caused Solmaz to back away in pain while holding his right ear.
In the 1st round, Kretschmann, a southpaw, walked Solmaz down, hitting him with straight left hands and right hooks to the head and body. Kretschmann mixed up his punches well to the head and body, doing a good job of keeping Solmaz guessing.
At 6’5”, Kretschmann had a good size advantage over the 6’2” Solmaz and was able to hit him without having to worry about being countered. In the 3rd round, Kretschmann landed a big left hand that knocked Solmaz back into the ropes, causing him almost to fall down.
The referee didn’t rule it as a knockdown but he probably should have because Solmaz was hurt by the big shot. In the 4thr round, Kretschmann landed well to the body o Solmaz, hitting him with rights and left hands through most of the round.
Near the end of the action, Kretschmann threw a big sweeping left hook that landed on the ear of Solmaz causing him to recoil in pain while holding onto his right ear and grimacing in pain. After the round ended, the fight was stopped due to Solmaz’s ear problem.
Kretschmann was matched softly in this fight because he had been stopped in the 1st round in June by Denis Bakhtov, and needed a confidence builder.
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Hard punching Russian heavyweight Konstantin Airich (12-2-1, 10 KO’s) destroyed Yuri Lumev (5-11, 2 KO’s) in a 1st round TKO. Airich, 30, loading up with every punch, came out swinging for the fences with every punch in the opening round. He missed with several huge left hooks that looked as if they would have knocked out any heavyweight in the division had they landed.
Lumev, 36, looked terrified, backing away and trying to create distance between him and Airich. However, Airich caught up to Lumev by the ropes and nailed him with a huge left hand to the head that sent Lumev down for the count. The referee Henrich Muehmert then stepped in and stopped the action at 1:12 of the 1st round. Airich remains a heavyweight with a lot of power, but very limited hand speed.