Firat Arslan

Jones Stops Arslan

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arslan433.jpgBy Chris Williams: In a defeat that many boxing fans saw coming a long time ago, perhaps as soon as the fight was signed, WBC cruiserweight champion Firat Arslan (29-4-1, 18 KOs) was stopped in the 10th round by Guillermo Jones (36-3-2, 28 KOs) on Saturday night at the Color Line Arena, Altona, in Hamburg, Germany. With Arslan, 38, taking non-stop punches to the head in the 10th round by Jones, the referee Luis Pabon stepped in and stopped the slaughter at 2:33 of the 10th. Arslan was cut badly on his top lip in the 3rd round, and the cut bled constantly throughout the fight, dripping down all over his face and badly and covering the ring with blood.

Arslan also bled constantly from the nose, which may have been broken early on by one of Jones’ many uppercuts in the fight. Arslan never stood a chance in the fight, as the 6’4″ Jones was all over him from round one, hitting him with dozens of punches in every round and burying him with a blanket of punches. Not a particularly hard puncher, Jones focused on throwing a high volume of shots at Arslan, badly outworking him in the fight and never seeming to tire with all the many punches he was throwing at Arslan.

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Arslan Decisions Wilson

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arslan4343232.jpgBy Chris Williams: Making his first defense of his WBA cruiserweight title, Firat Arslan (29-3-1, 18 KOs) won a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision over American Darnell Wilson (23-7-3, 20 KOs) on Saturday night at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, in Stuttgart, Baden-Wuttemberg, Germany. It was thought that Wilson, 33, might have a good chance at beating the talented, but limited Arslan. However, Wilson seemed hampered by the over-sized gloves that he was wearing, which were huge looking, obviously meant more for defense than for offense.

It was immediately clear that Wilson was going to have problems landing his shots, one because of the high guard that Arslan was holding in front of his face, protecting himself from the heavy shots of Wilson, and two because Wilson’s hand speed was very poor. That’s not to say that Arslan’s was much better, because he too has dismal handspeed. However, in Arslan’s case, he’s mostly an arm puncher, almost unable to put his body behind his shots for some reason. Not sure why, because he looks as if he could punch a hole through a wall with all his muscles, but in this case, his muscles seem to prevent him from throwing hard shots instead of working in his favor. Indeed, Arslan didn’t even try to punch hard, mostly throwing jabs for the entire fight.

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Dimitrenko vs. Rossy, Arslan vs. Wilson This Saturday

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dimitrenko434333.jpgBy Scott Gilfoid: Undefeated heavyweight contender Alexander Dimitrenko continues with his move towards a future title shot this Saturday night, fighting Derric Rossy (18-1, 10 KOs) at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer Halle in Stuttgart, Germany for Dimitrenko’s WBO Inter-continental title . For Dimitrenko, 25, this is a step backwards by fighting Rossy, who doesn’t come close to matching up with the 6’7” Dimitrenko in category going into this fight on Saturday. Dimitrenko had looked good in most of his bouts until, that is, his last fight with Timo Hoffmann, who knocked Dimitrenko to the canvas once in the fight and landed a lot of heavy shots during the fight.

I suppose you could excuse Dimitrenko’s off performance, given the huge 6’6” 260 lb size of Hoffmann. This wasn’t a bout in which Dimitrenko could simply use his height and reach to dominate Hoffmann, and was forced to utilize his super boxing skills to eventually overwhelm him in the 12th round, stopping him by TKO. As always, Dimitrenko showed extraordinary skills for a large heavyweight, showing an incredible array of punches and movement from a fighter his size. He looked like a larger, more athletic version of Wladimir Klitschko, only without his power.

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