By Alexey Sukachev

Sparkassen-Arena, Kiel, Germany - "King" Arthur Abraham (34-3, 27 KOs) continued his renaissance after two disappointing years of defeats and letdowns, with his second win this year and once again versus a capable opponent. WBO #2 and WBA/IBF #4 Abraham used his power and some brute male force to beat down Polish contender Piotr Wilczewski over twelve, fairly one-sided rounds. All three judges saw the fight almost the same: 118-109 (Zoltan Enyedi and Michael Leu) and 119-108 (Ingo Barrabas) for the defending WBO European champion, who didn't look his best or his his worst either, while BoxingScene had it a bit closer at 116-111.

Abraham was the king of the starting two rounds, using heavy blows in fast, vicious packs to put the former EBU champion on the defensive. Wilczewski looked better in the next couple of rounds, using is jab and his body attacks to tag Abraham in some occasions while avoiding the German's straightforward tactics of covering behind the shell defense and coming out with rare spurts.

The Pole was rocked a bit in the fifth but returned the favor in the sixth round. However, as the fight progressed, Wilczewski felt his fatige and started to throw less punches. He was also too weak to give Abraham any major problems. The German changed his tactics a bit and started to use uppercuts to connect on his opponent. Wilczewski often held Abraham and also ducked with his head very low. After another violation, referee Manuel Maritxalar finally deducted a point from the Pole in round ten. Abraham used all of his zeal and bulldog determination to close strong in the championship rounds, but he was unable to stop Wilczewski, who slips down to 30-3, with 10 KOs.

In a hard and brutal battle, highly ranked European champion Eduard Gutknecht (24-1, 9 KOs) was tested tough by his mandatory challenger Tony Averlant (17-6-2, 4 KOs), the holder of the EBU-EU belt from France. Averlant had previously stopped another Sauerland protege Artur Hein in a rematch of a draw in their first fight and was deemed to be a live opponent. He exceeded these expectations but a final outcome wasn't in his favor.

 

This time the Frenchman started the fight slowly and soon found himself suffering a flash knockdown in round one. However, as the bout progressed Avelant got more and more consistent in his resistance and often gave the champion a very hard time, offering him eveything he had and making a good and close fight for the fans. After twelve rounds of two-way action judge Philippe Verbecke of Belgium voted for Averlant: 113-115. He was overruled by Ian John-Lewis of England and Alfredo Garcia Perez of Spain, who both had it 114-113 for the defending WBC #3, WBO #5, WBA #7 and IBF #11 ranked German. The result - a split decision for Gutknecht - was controversial, and Averlant has surely earned another round of applause.

Super middleweight Henry Weber (16-1, 3KOs) won an eight round unanimous decision over Italian veteran Lorenzo Di Giacomo  (41-6-1). The scores were 77-75 twice and 78-75.

Light heavyweight Robert Woge (8-0, 7 KOs) knocked out Carls Dilks (16-5, 5 KOs) in three rounds. Time of stoppage 2:28. Dilks was down several times.

Super middleweight Tyron Zeuge (1-0, 1 KO) stopped Evgueny Bogdanovskiy (3-5, 3 KOs) in one. Time of stoppage: 1:14. Bogdanovkisy was floored twice before the stoppage.