By Jim Dower: In a huge upset, heavyweight Christian Hammer (20-4, 11 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten #14 WBO Erkan Teper (16-1, 10 KOs) by a 12 round split decision to capture the vacant World Boxing Organization European heavyweight title on Saturday night at the G 18-Halle in Hamburg, Germany.
It might have been in Teper’s best interest to have taken a couple of more tune-up opponents before facing a guy in the class of the 29-year-old German based Romanian Hammer. Teper missed an entire year after his win over David Price last year, and he clearly needed more fights under his belt before taking on a high caliber fighter like Hammer.
The win for Hammer was his third straight since his eighth round stoppage loss to Tyson Fury in February 2015. Hammer has since beaten Michael Sprott, Sherman Williams and Teper.
This was the 34-year-old Teper’s second fight since his 2nd round destruction of British heavyweight David Price last year in July 2015. Teper was out of action after that fight for an entire year until coming back in July of this year in a 10 round unanimous decision win over Derric Rossy.
The loss for Teper puts a big cloud over his future in boxing, because he shouldn’t have lost this fight. The results of a defeat like this suggest that Teper might not have the talent to hang with the better heavyweights in the division.
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In other action on the card, undefeated 6’7 ½” Swedish heavyweight Adrian Granat (14-0, 13 KOs) recorded a surprised 6th round knockout win over the hard hitting German heavyweight Franz Rill (13-2, 9 KOs) to capture the IBF International heavyweight title. The fight was halted at 1:30 of the 6th round by referee Ingo Barrabas.
This is the same Rill, 28, who was beaten by Robert Helenius by a 12 round unanimous decision last December in failed effort to win the vacant European Boxing Union heavyweight title by Rill.
