Strong Airich loses to Danny Williams, Hide Defeats Ehikhamenor

Dramatic ring battle in Bilbao! German interim champion Konstantin Airich showed a great fight against odds-on favourite Danny Williams though he couldn’t beat the British titleholder in front of 2,000 Spanish fans at the Pabellon deportivo Asesarre. Airich dropped Williams to the canvas three times – twice in round 3, one more time in round 4 – but couldn’t finish off his experienced opponent who came back to take home the victory..

Williams was repeatedly warned by referee Alfredo Garcia for throwing low-blows (rounds 2 and 5). Due to the point deductions and knockdowns Williams would have had no chance to win a decision. So he wildly attacked Airich and dropped the 29-year-old German twice in rounds 5 and 6. When Williams started battering Airich again in the 7th it was promoter Ahmet Öner who threw in the towel to protect his fighter from more punishment and a possible hard knockout. It was Konstantin Airich’s first loss in 11 pro-fights.

“I’m glad I won the fight”, stated Williams who kneeled down and kissed the ring mat after his victory. “It was a real war. I had heard before that Konstantin is a hard puncher but I was really shocked when he hit me in the first couple of rounds. This boy has fists of stone. I think the referee did a bad job and I didn’t want that to be decisive in the fight. So in the end I did what I had to do to finish him off.”

In the co-main event former WBO heavyweight champion Herbie Hide defended his WBC international cruiserweight title against Ehinomen Ehikhamenor from New York (born in Benin). Although “Hino” was stronger than expected the “Dancing Destroyer” dropped his opponent once in the 4th round and had no serious problems taking home a clear unanimous decision (118:109, 117:110, 118:109).

Middleweight prospect Mahir Oral scored a unanimous decision victory as well although his fight for the EBA interim championship against stable-mate Alexander Sipos was pretty close. Sipos dominated the first rounds before Mahir could take control. The judges scored the bout 115:113, 115:114, 116:113 in favour of the “Lion”.

Rising light welterweight star Sergej Sorokin from Russia scored his 28th win in his 30th pro-fight (1 draw) by split decision against Argentinian veteran Juan Carlos Villareal who dropped to 39-9-1. Sorokin will face Randall Bailey in his next fight on July 4th in Istanbul, Turkey.

Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Yakup Saglam raised his record to 14-0-0 including 13 k.o.s by stopping Mate Kubinyi from Greece in the 1st.

Middleweight contender Ruben Diaz scored a 5th round t.k.o. over Jurijs Boreiko from Latvia while local hero Hector Moreira suffered his first loss in 21 pro-fights against Alexander Saltykov who stopped his Spanish opponent by t.k.o. in the 2nd.