By Erik Schmidt: Unbeaten cruiserweight contender Alexander Frenkel (21-0, 17 KO’s) stopped journeyman Kelvin Davis (27-11, 17 KO’s) in the 1st round on Saturday night on the undercard of the WBA heavyweight title fight between champion Nikolay Valuev and challenger David Haye at the Arena Nürnberger Versicherung, Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Bayern, Germany.

Frenkel, 24, ranked number #10 in the World Boxing Council, hurt the 31-year-old Davis with a left uppercut early in the 1st round of their scheduled eight round fight. Frenkel then continued to hammer Davis with uppercuts one after another until referee Ingo Barrabas stepped in and called a halt to the bout at 2:07 of the 1st.

Davis, who came into Saturday’s fight having lost six out of his last seven fights, he never really did seem to get into the fight. Frenkel jabbed away at Davis from the distance, doubling up on the jabs. When Davis would come forward trying to land, Frenkel would quickly back away punching as he backed up. Davis tried crowding Frenkel and covered up as he did so.

However, Davis made the mistake of leaning too far forward which gave Frenkel an opening for his uppercuts. He hit Davis with a big left uppercut that bloodied his nose and snapped his head back really hard. Frenkel then continued to hammer away at the near defenseless Davis, staggering him repeatedly until the referee stepped forward and stopped the bout before Davis could go down.

Frenkel looked good, albeit against a very beatable opponent. Frenkel’s German handlers are being very careful with him, keeping him away from dangerous that might have a chance at beating Frenkel or making him look bad. He’s got poor hand speed and his defense isn’t the best either.

It will be interesting to see if Frenkel is continued to be brought along like this in the future up until the point he gets his title shot. My guess is when he finally fights for the title that will be the first time he’s fought a 1st tier fighter. It’s a good way of protecting Frenkel, but I think his management team are stupid for doing so. He won’t learn being served up 2nd tier fighters that don’t push him.

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In another hopeless mismatch on the same card, unbeaten cruiserweight contender Francisco Palacios (19-0, 12 KO’s) stopped DeLeon Tinsley (9-5-1, 5 KO’s) in the 1st round of a scheduled eight round bout. Palacios, 32, had little problems with Tinsley. Palacios took a few right hands from Tinsley in the opening seconds of the round before opening up with two hard right hands that put Tinsley down.

He immediately popped to his feet, but referee Jan Christensen decided to stop the bout right then and there at 1:29 of the round. Palacios is ranked high, ranked number #3 in the WBA and WBC and #14 in the IBF. It’s not likely that Palacios will be put in with a live body before he eventually gets a title shot against one of the champions.

It’s too bad, because like Frenkel, Palacios has been put in with strictly soft opponents since turning pro in 2004. He’ll have problems when he is finally in with a champion, because he looks to have a lot of holes in his game and he hasn’t had the competition needed to work on these things.