After twelve very close and dramatic rounds Selcuk Aydin beat Ionut “Jo-Jo Dan” Ion by split decision Saturday night in front of 10,000 frenetýc fans at Abdi Ýpekci Spor Salonu to win the vacant WBC Silver Championship.
Aydin started strong flooring his opponent with a right hook to the head in the first round. But “Jo-Jo Dan” not only recovered fast but started to take control in round two to four. Throughout the fight the Canada based Romanian was the more active man in the ring while Selcuk Aydin landed the harder shots whenever he came close enough to hurt Ion. In the end Aydin’s supreme defensive skills and his higher accuracy convinced two of three judges to score the bout 114:113 ýn favour of the local hero; one judge had it 116:111 for Ion.
“We had expected a very close and exciting fight”, said promoter Ahmet Öner after the bout. “Still I have to congratulate both fighters to their fantastýc performances. This was a true championship battle. I am very happy and proud that we were able to present a spectacular world-class fight like this in Istanbul. The attendance of 10,000 fans ýs a new record for boxing audiences in Turkey..”
“I kept my promise to win the belt for my Turkish fans”, states Aydin. “I want to thank everybody who supported me and helped me to become champion of the world. The way the people in the arena pushed me to the victory is simply ýncredible. I am not completely satisfied with my performance. There’s stýll a lot of work to be done. I hope that in my next title defences I can show some improvement so everybody can see that I am one of the best welterweight in the world today.”
On the undercard some promising Turkish prospects scored impressivew ins. Unbeaten heavyweight contender Yakup Saglam scored his 25th win in as many pro-fýghts by stopping German “Highlander” Marcel Zeller in three. Super middleweight hope Savas Kaya (vs. Tomas Kugler) and cruiserweight contender Eyüp Kuscu (vs. Florians Strupits) won by unanimous decision over four rounds. Middleweight Murat Öner showed a great performance in his pro-debut stopping Zdenek Siroky in two.
In the first-ever female pro-fight on Turkish soil Asýye Özlem Sahin outpointed Oksana Romanova from Ukraine. “Every fight is important to me but this historic chance to become the first woman ever to fight in front of her home crowd was truly special. I thank ARENA and my sponsor GAZI for giving me this chance.”
