Date: Saturday, October 19, 2013
Title: WBO Super Middleweight Championship
Location: Messehalle, Leipzig, Sachsen, Germany
Promoter: Ulf Steinforth (Sport Events Steinforth)
Supervisor: Marcus Aslani
Referee: Eddie Cotton
Judges: Waleska Roldan (118-110); Andre Van Grootenbruel (118-110), Frank Michael Maass (119-109)
Results: Robert Stieglitz retained WBO Super Middleweight Title by unanimous decision against Isaac Ekpo.
Over 500 fight fans turned up on Wednesday to see WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz and his challenger Isaac Ekpo conduct public workouts at the Paunsdorf Center in Leipzig, Germany. The titleholder showed up with trainer Dirk Dzemski and appeared to be in a good mood and in great shape for the fight on Saturday at Leipzig Exhibition Hall EINS.
His opponent, Nigerian Isaac Ekpo, didn’t show much. In the training ring, he completed only a few light exercises with the jump rope and practiced shadow boxing. Ekpo was given a few pairs of goalie gloves so he can resume his career as a goalkeeper after presumably losing the world championship fight.
The world champion, however, gave the fans several minutes of pad work with his coach, then he stayed and fulfilled boxing fans’ many requests for autographs.
Also showing their skills were WBC Youth titleholder Dominic Bösel, ex-IBF champion Jan Zaveck, and Tom Schwarz and Tom Pahlmann from “Team Germany.”
On this coming coming Saturday, Robert Stieglitz defends the WBO super middleweight crown against Isaac Ekpo.
http://www.fightnews.com/Boxing/stieglitz-ekpo-public-workout-228880
Photos: Team SES / P. Gercke –
WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (45-3, 26 KOs) is ready to defend his title against WBO #7 Isaac Ekpo (22-1, 16 KOs) on Saturday night at the EINS Exhibition Hall in Leipzig, Germany.
Below are quotes from Monday’s press conference:
Robert Stieglitz: “I am extremely motivated. I must cap off the honors and the two victories of this year in Leipzig. Being number one and leading the success of the entire SES team makes us all very proud. I was very well prepared in recent fights. But now I have once again stepped up my game. Isaac Ekpo is physically very strong. He will want to use his first world title chance. He is boxing not only for himself but for all of Nigeria. Isaac will give everything. But I am well known for the fact that I can deal with lions!”
Isaac Ekpo: “I want to use my first shot at a world title. I am very happy about it. When Robert Stieglitz enters the ring with a lion, he’ll have a hard time winning. There can be only one: him or me! God will help me and he’s watching over me. I believe in God’s help. Before, I was goalkeeper in soccer. But boxing is a man-against-man situation. This is much more attractive and clear for me. Therefore, I prefer boxing. ”
Ulf Steinforth: “We’ve always had an eye on Leipzig. I always wanted to host an event with championship fights here. We are particularly pleased about October 19th. About 4,500 tickets have already been sold. This makes us optimistic that we can announce in the coming days, we’re sold out.”
http://www.fightnews.com/Boxing/wbo-champ-stieglitz-wants-to-tame-ekpo-228778
Photos: Team SES / P. Gercke
WBO super middleweight Champion Robert Stieglitz (45-3-0, 26 KOs) will defend his title against #7 rated Isaac Ekpo (22-1, 16 KOs) of Nigeria on October 19 at the Messe Halle in Leipzig, Germany. The card will also feature a clash between IBF flyweight champion Moruti Mthalane (29-2, 20 KOs) and Spaniard Silvio Olteanu (14-6-1, 6 KOs) plus WBO Youth jr welterweight beltholder and leader of SES Boxing’s “Team Germany” Dominic Boesel (12-0, 4 KOs) will take on Italian Mirko Ricci (10-1, 4 KOs).
“This is my last title defense of the year,” said Steiglitz at today’s press conference. “Leipzig is a special city for me. It’s not far from Magdeburg and I have a lot of fans…we did preliminary analysis of the challenger Isaac Ekpo. He’s aggressive and muscular. I’ve been working a lot with my legs and speed. My Teammate Jan Zaveck invited me to spend two weeks at a training camp in Ptuj, Slovenia.”
Regarding his WBO mandated defense third fight against Arthur Abraham, Stieglitz stated, “That’s quite normal and I’m happy about it. As world champion I must box everyone anyway.”
Trainer Dirk Dzemski added “I’m very pleased with Robert this year, especially that he came away without injury from the fight against Kiyota. Now comes the hot and stressful phaseof the preparation, the training camp in Slovenia. One thing is certain, it will only be a vacation for me (grins). Isaac Ekpo is hungry, can hit hard – this will be an exciting thing that you must take very seriously.”
SES promoter Ulf Steinforth stated: “Leipzig is something special. We’ve had the city on our list and now we bring the best of what we have. We anticipate 6,000 spectators and with the new seating system, we can expand capacity quickly. The next fight against Ekpo is difficult enough for Robert. Ekpo is the current #7 in the world rankings. That’s why we can’t make any further plans. Dominic is a worthy captain of Team Germany. That a competition is emerging within Team Germany is, of course, good. We’ve proved that there are very talented young boxers and it’s fun to promote and to see them. Robert is currently the boxer with the most fights, a true role model, a mentor for Team Germany, which is what I’m most proud of. In Leipzig we’ll have Team Germany, Jan Zaveck and the newly added IBF flyweight championship completing the card. Out of eight fights we will have four title fights.”
Ticket sales will start at the end of the week.
