By Tim Royner: Rocky Fielding (27-1, 15 KOs) pulled off a huge upset in stopping World Boxing Association Super World super middleweight champion Tyron Zeuge (22-1-1, 12 KOs) by a 5th round knockout on Saturday night at the Baden-Arena in Offenburg, Germany.
Fielding knocked Zeuge down in round 5. After the German fighter got back up, his corner halted the fight. Zeuge was too hurt for the fight to be allowed to continue.
After losing the first three rounds, the 30-year-old Fielding stopped being gun-shy and took the fight to the 26-year-old Zeuge, hurting him badly in the closing seconds of round 4. As hurt as Zeuge was, there was little chance that he would recover in between rounds. Sure enough, Zeuge was still hurt as he came out for the 5th round. Zeuge was at the mercy of Fielding, who hurt him with a left hook. Zeuge tried to hold on but Fielding continued to nail him with heavy blows to the head and body. The body shots seemed to do a lot of damage to Zeuge, as he had never fought a body puncher like Fielding in his short career.
Zeuge made the mistake of trading with Fielding in the 4th round. The German fighter was doing well when he was fighting smart and using his superior boxing skills in rounds one through three. Zeuge didn’t have the power to abandon his boxing, and yet made the crucial error in the 4th round in looking to fire off power shots. This was the opportunity that Fielding needed to land one of his big left hooks, and he immediately stunned Zeuge and had him out on his feet. Zeuge covered up and took a barrage of heavy blows as the 4th round ended.
At the start of round 5, Zeuge had his guard up looking to block the incoming head shots from Fielding. It worked, but it left his body wide open. Fielding took advantage of it, targeting his midsection with hard shots. When Zeuge dropped his guard to protect his body, Fielding moved upstairs with his punches and once again had the German fighter in trouble. Moments later, Fielding dropped Zeuge hard on the canvas. Zeuge got back to his feet. His corner then threw in the towel to end it.
“I’d love to defend it in Liverpool – there’s a rematch clause but I can’t see him wanting to fight me again,” Fields said. “I’ll have a rest and get back to the family, we’ll sit down with the team and we’ll see what options are out there, but I’m really thrilled and can’t wait to build on this.”
With the win, Fielding captures the WBA 168 lb. title. It’s unclear what Fielding will do with his next fight. Fielding can make good money facing the winner of the World Boxing Super Series finals between WBA Super World super middleweight champion George Groves and Callum Smith in a unification fight. Zeuge will likely want a rematch in Germany. There’s money for Fielding to make if he agrees to come back to Germany for the rematch with Zeuge. He proved tonight that he can beat Zeuge. The way that Fielding destroyed Zeuge tonight, he’ll have a good chance of doing the same thing in a rematch.