By Erik Schmidt: German middleweight Sebastian Sylvester (32-3, 15 KO’s) defeated Giovanni Lorenzo (27-2, 19 KO’s) by a 12-round split decision on Saturday night to capture the vacant International Boxing Federation middleweight title at the Jahnsportforum, Neubrandenburg, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany The final judges’ scores were 116-111 for Lorenzo, 116-112 and 115-113 for Sylvester.
Many of the rounds were very difficult to score because there was a lot of back and forth action and neither fighter was able to distinguish himself as being much better than the others. There were no knockdowns in the fight nor were either of the fighters hurt in the 12 round bout. Part of the problem was that neither fighter had much power to speak of and much of the action involved jabs and weak combinations, with Sylvester appearing to do the better work because of his superior jab.
In the first two rounds, Lorenzo, 28, stalked Sylvester around the ring, throwing lopping left hooks to the body and slow right hands to the head. Most of the shots were picked off but a few of them got through Sylvester’s guard and landed to the head. In the 2nd round, Lorenzo landed a nice right hand in the opening minute of action that knocked Sylvester backwards a couple of steps. Sylvester quickly regrouped and fired back a powerful right hand of his own. Lorenzo stayed in front of Sylvester and continued to hit him with right hands through the end of the round.
Sylvester used his jab effectively to control the 3rd and 4th rounds. Lorenzo had his moments in both rounds, landing hard right hands, but they were few and far in between, as Sylvester kept a steady diet of jabs in his face and didn’t give much of a chance to set up his offense unmolested. Lorenzo began to show signs of swelling underneath his right eye by the end of the 3rd round, likely a product of Sylvester’s jabs.
Lorenzo slowed down in the 5th round, throwing far less punches than he had in the four previous rounds and pretty much giving the round away due to inaction. Sylvester continued mostly ton jab away at Lorenzo and throw an occasional right hand. Sylvester did land several big right hands in the round in between his jabs.
In rounds six and seven, Sylvester appeared to do the better work with his jabs. Lorenzo made it easy for Sylvester to win the rounds because he continued to throw few punches. In the 8th round, Lorenzo came out looking like a different fighter, throwing a lot of left hooks to the body. The punches were thrown with very speed or power, looking as if they were thrown under water.
In rounds nine through eleven, Sylvester dominated with his jabs and right hands. Lorenzo was unable to keep the rounds competitive because he wasn’t letting his hands go enough. And when he would throw, his shots lacked snap.
In the twelfth round, Sylvester took it easy, staying on the move and not engaging with Lorenzo. He obviously knew that he was ahead on the scorecards and didn’t want to take any risks by exchanging with Lorenzo.
All in all, I wasn’t impressed with either fighter. Sylvester looked pretty one-dimensional, throwing mostly jabs and right hands. Granted, he has a nice jab, but his right hand power is average and his style of fighting was very predictable all night long. Lorenzo, 28, just looked slow and weak. I’m not surprised that he was beaten by Raul Marquez last year, because he’s lacking in too many areas.