36-year-old super middleweight contender Arthur Abraham (45-5, 30 KOs) beat little known bottom dweller Tim-Robin Lihaug (15-2, 8 KOs) by an eighth round stoppage tonight in a showcase/confidence booster type of fight at the Max Schmeling Halle, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany.
Abraham knocked Lihaug with a 1-2 combination in the 8th. After Lihaug got back to his feet, Abraham unloaded on him with power shots until the fight was stopped. The fight was stopped at 1:09 of the round.
Weigh-In Results from Berlin:
Arthur Abraham: 76,2 kg / 167,9 lbs
Tim-Robin Lihaug: 76,0 kg / 167,5 lbs
IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs) fought in a controlled and relaxed manner on Monday night in beating the 29-year-old Isaac Chilemba (24-4-2, 10 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the DIVS Palace of Sports in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Kovalev put Chilemba on the canvas in the 7th, and came within an eyelash of getting a knockout in that round. It looked like Kovalev took it easy on Chilemba until pouring it on in the last minute of the 12th round. Kovalev suddenly came alive and was punishing a badly hurt Chilemba as the fight ended. Chilemba’s nose was bleeding and he looked in bad shape. The question is did Kovalev take it easy on Chilemba to get rounds in so that he could get practice for the Andre Ward fight coming up? It sure looked that way to me.
Tony Bellew (27-2-1, 17 KOs) picked up the WBC cruiserweight title tonight with an easier than expected 3rd round knockout win over Ilunga Makabu (19-2, 18 KOs) at Goodison Park in Liverpool, England. Bellew went in the underdog but he showed that the oddsmakers had been wrong in installing the 28-year-old Makabu the favorite.
Bellew took Makabu out in the third round with some hard shots to the head after backing him up against the ropes. Makabu went down hard and was unable to continue.
#3 WBA “Sugar” Shane Mosley (49-10-1, 41 KOs) saw his dreams of a big fight wash away before his eyes tonight with him losing a 12 round unanimous decision to interim WBA welterweight champion David Avanesyan (22-1-1, 11 KOs) at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona. The fight was a competitive one from start to finish.
The telling factor in the contest was the two or three head-snapping shots the 27-year-old Avanesyan landed in each round. Mosley wasn’t landing with enough regularity to get the victory. The judges’ scores were 114-113, 117-110 and 117-110. The 117-110 scores seemed a tad bit wide to me.
In a crushing blow to his career, previously unbeaten heavyweight contender Robert Helenius (22-1, 13 KOs) tasted defeat for the first time in his eight year pro career in getting halted in the 6th round by #12 WBC Johann Duhaupas (34-3, 21 KOs) on Saturday night at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland. The fact that Duhaupas, 35, was able to go into Helenius’ own hometown to defeat him has to hurt even worse for him.
Fighting a needless rematch, WBA (regular) light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (48-2, 35 KOs) once again beat Eduard Gutknecht (29-4-1, 12 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision tonight in their rematch at the Jahnsportforum in Neubrandenburg, Germany. Just like their first fight three years ago, Braehmer was much too good for the slower, weaker and less skilled 33-year-old Gutknecht.
Coming off of a bad knockout loss, 31-year-old former WBO cruiserweight world champion Marco Huck (39-3-1, 27 KOs) was able to score a 10th round TKO win tonight over IBO cruiserweight champion Ola Afolabi (22-5-4, 11 KOs) at the Gerry Weber Stadium in Halle, Germany. The fight was stopped by referee Jack Reiss after the 10th round had ended.
He halted it because of Afolabi’s left eye being swollen shut. Huck had been hammering Afolabi with right hands to the eye from the very start of the fight. In the 1st round, Huck rammed his head accidentally into the face of Afolabi, and that obviously didn’t help Afolabi’s eye any.
Robert Guerrero (33-4-1, 18 KOs) fought well enough to deserve a draw last Saturday night in his fight against Danny Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs), but the judges saw it differently in giving the 27-year-old Garcia a 12 round unanimous decision at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The judges scored it 116-112, 116-112 and 116-112.
Guerrero was upset about the decision afterwards and said he wants a rematch, because even Floyd Mayweather Jr. said that the fight should have been scored a draw. However, Garcia and his dad Angel Garcia are saying no to a rematch. They want to move on to bigger fights. Just what those bigger fights are is unclear, because they don’t want to fight Amir Khan.
With his #1 ranking with the WBC, Amir Khan is on the verge of finally getting one of the fights he wants in him getting a potential crack at the new WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) in his next fight if he wants it. Khan says he definitely wants to face the 27-year-old Garcia so that he can avenge his loss from 2012, and pick up the WBC 147lb title that was recently stripped from Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Last night, Garcia won a close 12 round unanimous decision victory over Robert Guerrero (33-4-1, 18 KOs) on Premier Boxing Champions on Fox from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.