Luan Krasniqi beats Samil Sam, regains European crown

15.02.04 – In front of 5.500 spectators at Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart Luan Krasniqi (photo: Fabian Weber) defeated his stable mate Sinan Samil Sam by majority decision over 12 rounds in a contest for the European heavyweight title. The official scores were 116:113, 115:113 and 114:114. The skilful Krasniqi who peppered the slower Sam with flashy combinations upped his record to 26-1 with 13 knockouts. Sam who suffered his second consecutive loss is now 18-2 with 11 knockouts.

The 32-year-old Krasniqi is now a two-time European heavyweight champion after he held the EBU crown already in 2002. Samil Sam was winning the title from Przemyslaw Saleta in October 2002 and made two successful defenses before losing the crown to Krasniqi.

The live punch statistic on Boxing.de counted 506 punches for Samil Sam from which 161 landed. Krasniqi threw 485 punches but was more accurate with 174 landed punches. In the live voting tool on Boxing.de the fans gave 10 of the 12 rounds to Luan Krasniqi.

In the co-main event of the evening German light heavyweight contender Thomas Ulrich and American Michael Rush mixed it up for twelve action packed rounds in a contest for the WBC international title.

Ulrich displayed an impressive mix of speed, mobility and powerful combinations against the motivated and always dangerous Rush who often surprised his opponent with vicious hooks from different angles.

It was the sixth consecutive victory for Ulrich, 25-1 (18), since he suffered his single career defeat against Glencoffe Johnson in July 2001. Ulrich, currently ranked WBC #5, WBA and IBF #8 and WBO #4 may get the chance to fight for a world title this year. Reigning WBC champion is Roy Jones Jr., WBA king is Silvio Branco, champ of the IBF is Ulrich’s former conqueror Glencoffe Johnson whereas Ulrich’s stable mate Zsolt Erdei is the ruler of the WBO.