Vincenzo Gualtieri and Thomas Piccirillo both survived their second straight unbeaten opponents without suffering a defeat.

Of course, it also meant neither boxer walking away with a victory.

A hard-fought bout between the pair of unbeaten middleweights resulted in a 10-round majority decision draw Friday evening at Havelstudios in Berlin, Germany. Scores were 96-94 Piccirillo and 95-95 twice, in the opening bout of a televised tripleheader on Germany Sport 1.

Both boxers were coming off of rewarding wins over previously unbeaten opponent on the same show in this very venue this past June. Wuppertal’s Gualtieri outlasted Alexander Pavlov, claiming a 10-round majority decision on a card that saw Piccirillo—a transplanted Italy native now based out of Cologne—edge Adam Amkhadov over eight rounds.

Gualtieri fought like the more experienced fighter, though there was never any quit in Piccirillo. The compact Italian middleweight came forward all evening, disrupting Gualtieri surges with sharp right hands which bloodied the nose of his foe. 

The modest-sized crowd of 100 or so fans on hand changed ‘Capo! Capo!’ any time Gualtieri landed a meaningful punch, while also rolling out the chant to will the unbeaten middleweight to victory. A more active workrate from 27-year old appeared to be the difference in an entertaining affair, though it was only enough to pull even in the end.

Gualtieri is now 15-0-1 (7KOs), while Piccirillo’s record moves to 7-0-1 (2KOs).

The bout served in supporting capacity to a junior middleweight title eliminator between Jack Culcay (28-4, 13KOs) and Abass Baraou (9-0, 6KOs) to determine the number-two contender in the IBF 154-pound rankings.

UNDERCARD (VIA AGON SPORTS YOUTUBE CHANNEL)

William Scull enjoyed his first win of 2020, stopping Finland’s Mathias Eklund (12-4-2, 4KOs) in the fourth round of their super middleweight preliminary contest. Scull (15-0, 7KOs)—a 28-year old Cuban super middleweight now based out of Argentina—twice floored Eklund, dropping the 35-year old midway through the opening round and forcing him to a knee in eventually producing a stoppage at 1:15 of round four.

Local light heavyweight prospect Fabian Theimke opened the show with a six-round unanimous decision win over Estonia’s Gennadi Stserbin (2-6, 2KOs). Scores were not announced, although anything other than a six-round shutout for Theimke (5-0, 3KOs) would warrant a ‘Judging the Judges’ column on this very website. Stserbin was docked two points for an assortment of fouls, though managing to avoid disqualification or the threat of a knockout.

Haro Matevosyan scored his most recognizable win to date, cleanly outpointing former title challenger Joel Julio over ten rounds. Scores were 100-90, 99-92 and 98-92 in favor of Matevosyan (11-0, 6KOs), a promising junior middleweight southpaw who effectively countered Miami’s Julio (39-5, 33KOs) all evening. The full recap can be found HERE.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox