A revived Universum Promotion, formerly a well-known German outfit organized by Klaus-Peter Kohl as the Universum Box-Promotion a long time ago, now led by Ismael Oezen as a new company, staged a nice-packed show this Saturday night at its citadel of Hamburg, Germany.

Two ten-rounders commanded the event. Local Armenian light welterweight Artem Harutyunyan barely improved his record to 8-0, 5 KOs, overcoming the tough resistance of Russian Islam Dumanov (10-2, 5 KOs) with a questionable majority decision over ten heated rounds. Scores were: 98-92, 97-93 and 95-95, but Dumanov, who was out of the ring for more than a year, has nothing to be ashamed of.

In an important clash of youth and experience, the latter took over as 36-year old veteran Nick Klappert (28-3, 15 KOs) showed poise in late surge to edge Angola-born Antonio Hoffmann (22-2, 16 KOs), 25, and to take Hoffmann’s IBO International light middleweight title. Scores were: 97-93, 96-94, and 95-95 – a majority decision for Klappert.

Interestingly, less rounded but arguably more interesting fight took place in the undercard. In the battle of two super middleweight unbeatens with slightly damaged and identical records (16-0-1 coming), 21-year old Leon Bauer showed physical strength and also solid character to overcome a cut left eye and resistance of more fragile but no less willing Tony Kraft with a close unanimous decision in what was a very physical fight, led by Bauer.

Scores were: 77-76, 77-75 and 78-74 – for a younger fighter, as his record rises to 17-0-1, 9 KOs. 26-year old Kraft, of the Albanian origin, is back at the drawing board with 16-1-1, 4 KOs.

Zhan Kossobutskiy, a perennial rival of Kazakhstani’s Ivan Dychko and 2016 Olympic silver medalist Vassiliy Levit, made his name known to local crowd with a frenetic stoppage of previously undefeated 6’6’’ Croatian import Agron Smakici. In a battle of southpaws, shorter Kossobutskiy just smiled at Smakici’s attempts to give him fits. After a relatively slow start during the first minute, he exploded with a series of punches that had Smakici down.

The latter got up only to be annihilated with a straight left bomb to the chin, forcing referee Ingo Barrabas to call it of within the first round. Dangerous Kossobutskiy is now 12-0, 11 KOs, and should be carefully looked at, while Smakici (15-1, 13 KOs) should also take a critical look at his abilities and future.

In an important fight, former Cuban amateur standout Osleys Iglesias improved to 2-0, 2 KOs, with the second-round kayo of veteran Dominican Rafael Bejaran (26-5-1, 12 KOs), who was previously ranked by the WBO. The fight took place at 168 lbs. Iglesias is a four-time (2015-2018) Cuban national championship’s silver medalist and has a win over reigning middleweight amateur champion Gleb Bakshi in April 2019, but also has a string of losses to 2016 Olympic champion and his countryman Arlen Lopez.

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Russian Boxing Federation (RBF), a relatively new sanctioning body for prize-fighting (but a well-established organization in amateur boxing), which came over the previous installation, named the Professional Boxing Federation of Russia (PBFR) just two years ago, was awarded with a special award, as the best local federation of 2019 from the World Boxing Association’s point of view.

The announcement has been made in Fuzhou, China, where the 98th WBA Convention is taking place. The award was received by RBF’s deputy general secretary Kirill Schekutyev from the hands of Gilberto Mendoza Jr., the president of the WBA. RBF, which staged several big shows over the last couple of years and also hosted both Male and Female World amateur boxing championships in a span of two months, is led by flamboyant Umar Kremlev.

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German promoter-and-prizefighter Fatih Altunkaya (10-0, 9 KOs) staged a huge (by number of four-rounders) but modest (in terms of its level) card the last Sunday, November 3, and headlined it as a sole star of the night. Altunkaya stopped former Baltic Boxing Union light heavyweight champion Anton Sjomkin of Estonia within three one-sided rounds. Sjomkin, 40, has come back this year after seven years off the ring and now drops down to 14-10-1, 12 KOs. Altunkaya, meanwhile, is a new Global Boxing Federation cruiserweight “world champion” for whatever it means. Time was 0:53.