Abraham dethrones Stieglitz, wins WBO 168lb belt

In his third attempt, former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (35-3, 27 KOs) won a version of the super middleweight title, dethroning WBO champion Robert Stieglitz (42-3, 23 KOs) by unanimous decision on Saturday night at the O2 World Arena in Berlin, Germany.

Stiegtitz started well, outboxing Abraham and piling up an early lead. The pattern of the bout was established in round four. Stieglitz did most the work, but Abraham landed the harder and more effective shots. Abraham did a lot of mugging, dropping his hands and shrugging as he tried to goad Stieglitz into trading. The outgunned Stieglitz showed a lot of grit, often attacking with sharp flurries of punches. The champion’s face was getting pretty busted up by round ten and referee Joe Cortez stopped the action and called in the ring doctor, who OK’d the bout to continue. Abraham was relatively unmarked. Most rounds were close and the decision was still in doubt as the fight went to the judges. Scores were 116-112, 116-112, 115-113 for Abraham.

Former world amateur light middleweight titleholder “Golden” Jack Culcay (12-0, 8 KOs) stopped Frederic Serre (13-7, 3 KOs) in round three to claim the vacant WBA Inter-Continental belt.

Unbeaten WBO #7 light heavyweight Dustin Dirks (25-0, 19 KOs) hung the fifth straight loss on journeyman Sandro Siproshvili (25-14, 12 KOs). Dirks mostly battered the game Siproshvili until Siproshvili’s corner threw in the towel in round seven. Time was 2:05.

WBO #5 light heavyweight Robin Krasniqi (38-2, 14 KOs) scored a fourth round KO over previously unbeaten former stablemate Serdar Sahin (20-1, 13 KOs) to claim the vacant WBO International belt. Krasnigi dropped the WBO #12 rated Sahin in round one and again in the fourth. The bout was waved off by referee Franz-Michael Maas at :46.

By: Karl Freitag

http://www.fightnews.com/Boxing/stieglitz-abraham-undercard-results-131774