by Alexey Sukachev

MORE LIVE RESULTS TO COME.................

The Velodrom, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany - In his first defense, of his second reign of the WBO super middleweight title, "King" Arthur Abraham (40-4, 28KOs) won a twelve round unanimous decision over Nikola Sjekloca (26-2, 8KOs). Abraham injured his right hand around the seventh/eight round and told his corner that he believed it was broken. The scores were 116-113, 116-112 and 119-110. BoxingScene had it 117-112 - also for Abraham.

Abraham, 33, has just won the third of his trilogy against another two-time WBO champion Robert Stieglitz. He was looking for a soft touch in Sjekloca, remarkably two years his senior, but found none. The Montenegrin, though looking a little bit amateurish, was found to possess some fundamental skills and under-appreciated toughness to go with. Both were on display in the first couple of rounds against the champion. Sjekloca used his long lean jab wisely to keep Abraham at bay and landed some good overhand rights. Arthur's offensive work was inconsistent and rare.

Abraham started to tee off in the third round. He began to engage more willingly in exchanges with Sjekloca, finding his hand speed superior to that of the Montenegrin - a major feat of this fight. Nicola tried to answer in style but found it too hard to throw more than one-two punches at a time. Meanwhile, Abraham's counterattacks helped him to take the next three rounds between the fourth and the sixth. Abraham's foe has his last notable surge in the seventh, landing some well-placed shots to take that stanza for good.

From that point off, the fight was all Abraham's. Sjekloca was cut underneath his right eye somewhere in the midst of the fight, took many punches, slowed down considerably and became to acquire a look of a beaten fighter. Meanwhile, King Arthur experienced some severe problems as well, reportedly injuring (maybe even breaking his right hand between the eighth and the ninth stanzas. He continued to fight on, however, and did his best to stop Sjekloca in his steps in the championship rounds despite an obvious pain. There were no knockdowns in the fight, and neither of fighters were seriously hurt.

In an absolutely forgettable fight, young cruiserweight gun Noel Gevor (11-0, 6 KOs) boxed out a shutout, decision over incapable Georgian Gogit Gorgiladze (18-5, 14 KOs) to get a vacant WBO Youth 200lb title.

The bout was extremely uneventful, and both contestants would have been severely (and rightfully) booed, had this fight taken place outside Germany. For a majority of rounds, Gevor was content to throw his jab to his opponent's high guard. Power punches from the Germany-based Armenian were extremely rare. Gorgiladze, however, did even less, being to scared to throw any punches at all. Both Gevor and Gorgiladze waited up until the very end of the tenth and final round to exchange some leather in what wasn't even a sparring session.

Scores were: 100-90 (twice plus BoxingScene) and 99-91 - for Noel Gevor, who has hardly impressed anyone with this dull victory.

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In a sound upset, former world title challenger and IBF #9 rated light heavyweight Eduard Gutknecht, 32, was held to a split draw by an unknown Spain-based Argentinean Pablo Sosa, 26, in a heated eight-rounder. Official scores were: 77-75, 76-76 and 75-77.

BoxingScene saw it just narrowly: 77-76 - in favour of the German fighter.

Gutknecht (now 25-3-1, 9 KOs) was coming off a disastrous 2013, when he was firstly slightly misjudged against Juergen Braehmer and then stopped on cuts against Dmitry Sukhotskiy in the fall. Sosa's last fight was a draw (his second one) against Adasat Rodriguez. Gutknecht started the bout confidently, landing his jab supported by rare but

quality crisp right hands. However, he lacked activity, despite being a finer of the two in the first three rounds.

Sensing the German has trouble landing meaningful, really hurting blows, Sosa (now 3-3-3, 1 KO) got bigger in the midst of the fight, connecting surprisingly often to the head and body of the retreating German. The Argentinean had a major sixth round, forcing Gutknecht to turn his back on Pablo. Both combatants battled it out fiercely... and

evenly in the last couple of rounds.

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The night of first-round stoppages was continued in the third contest of the card, as Turkish heavyweight Burak Sahin (5-0, 5 KOs) easily dismantled lanky Hungarian trialhorse Zoltan Jerousek (1-2, 1 KO) at 2:17. Jerousek was down three times after wide but powerful punches by Sahin, which landed cleanly on his chin, and looked more like a zombie than actually a living and fighting specie.

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In another horrible mismatch, Danish featherweight (and 2012 London Olympian) Dennis Ceylan, 25, moved to 12-0, with 6 KOs, after the first-round blowout of Belarussian Dmitry Agafonov (8-3, 2 KOs). Ceylan rocked Agafonov early on and continued punching him up until the moment his opponent was put down with a violent right hand to the ribs.

Time of stoppage was 2:40 of the first round. Agafonov has lost his third straight. All of  his wins were against debutants, and he was annihilated in two by newly crowned European bantamweight champion Zhanat Zhakiyanov in 2011. That was his penultimate fight, and it was held at 118 lbs.

In a blitzkrieg, Germany-based Albanian Timo Schwarzkopf (14-0, 8KOs), originally Festim Kryeziu, used just 167 seconds to stop badly overmatched Georgian opponent Anzor Gamgebeli (17-6-3, 6 KOs) with a multi-punch combination in round one. The fight was one-sided from the opening bell, and Gamgebeli's only wish was to last as many rounds as he could, and he could little tonight.

Ridiculously, Schwarzcopf acquired the EBU-EE light welterweight title with this win (barely a match at all). He looks to be on prospect to keep your eye on, as he also scored two wins over former beltholders in Junior Witter and Ismael El-Massoudi in 2013.