By Jason Kim: Former WBO interim cruiserweight champion Ola Afolabi (16-2, 7 KO’s) defeated Lubos Suda (23-5-1, 15 KO’s) in a 5th round cut stoppage on Saturday night on the undercard of the WBC championship between title holder Vitali Klitschko vs. Odlanier Solis at the Lanxess Arena, in Cologne, Germany. This was Afolabi’s second consecutive win since losing to German based Marco Huck by a close 12 round unanimous decision in December 2009.

Afolabi, ranked #6 WBO, #6 WBA, #11 IBF, #11 WBC, was teeing off on the 34-year-old Suda in the 5th round when Suda was cut badly over his left eye. The action was then stopped and Suda marched over to the ringside physician, who then after a quick examination of Suda’s badly cut eye, waived off the fight. Afolabi was then give the stoppage win.

Afolabi, previously trained by Freddie Roach in the U.S., among others, is now trained Fritz Sdunek, the same trainer as Vitali Klitschko. Sdunek has made a lot of changes to Afolabi’s once wide open style of fighting and has him throwing a lot more jabs and boxing a lot more. Indeed, Afolabi jabbed Suda frequently for the first three rounds. In the 4th, Afolabi began opening up with clubbing right hands to the head and lefts to the body. In the 5th round, Afolabi backed Suda up against the ropes and then opened up with a flurry of power shots while Suda attempted to cover up. During the flurry, Suda was cut over the left eye. He then waived his arm to the referee to have the action stopped. The referee then stepped in and halted the fight and led Suda over to the doctor and that was it.