Sartory Saale, Cologne, Germany - In a showdown for the WBC International super middleweight world title, Avni Yildirim (18-1, 11 KOs) continued to rebuild his career with a twelve round unanimous decision over the always tough Dereck Edwards (27-3-1, 14 KOs). The scores were 116-112, 116-112, 118-110.

Yildirim suffered a bad break last October, when he was knocked out badly in three rounds by Chris Eubank Jr. Their contest was past of the World Boxing Super Series super middleweight tournament. Eubank was eliminated from the tournament last month by George Groves.

Yildirim was able to bounce back in December, with a TKO victory over Attila Korda.

Edwards lost five of his last six fights. The sole win, back in 2014, was a shocking stoppage win over an undefeated Badou Jack.

After that win, Edwards lost his next four bouts - with decision losses to Andre Dirrell, Gilberto Ramirez, Erik Skoglund and Lolenga Mock.

They were feeling each other out in the first round, but Yildirim came out throwing bombs in the second round and taking the fight to Edwards.

Yildirim continued to fight with the same pace, as he pushed forward with big punches and was looking to do a lot of damage on his opponent. Edwards is as durable as they come and he can take a real punch.

Edwards was always in the fight, but he was getting outworked and allowing Yildirim throw what he wanted to throw without many consequences. He would land a good shot here and there, but not enough of them to change the outcome.

The fight slowed down in the last few rounds, as Yildirim tired and his punches were starting to lack the big pop which they had in the first half, and Edwards was not doing enough to get Yildirim in trouble.

Edwards' corner was urging him to pick up the pace, as his head trainer saw Yildirim was very tired and pushing his punches, but for whatever reason Edwards would not push forward and attack.

In other results in Germany, this time at Stadthalle in Weissenfels, light heavyweight Dominic Boesel (27-1, 10 KOs) won a twelve round unanimous decision over Serhiy Demchenko (18-12-1, 12 KOs) to win the EBU title recently vacated by Karo Murat. The scores were 116-112, 116-112, 118-110.

Adam Deines (14-0-1, 7 KOs) won a ten round split decision over Stefan Haertel (15-1, 7 KOs) in a battle of undefeated light heavyweights. The scores were 96-95, 96-94 Deines, and 96-94 Haertel.

Enrico Koelling (25-2, 8 KOs) bounced back from his stoppage loss at the hands of Artur Beterbiev, with a first round knockout of Giorgi Beroshvili (30-23-3, 22 KOs).