The decision was left in no doubt. On Saturday night, Arthur Abraham (42-4, 28 KOs) retained his WBO World Super Middleweight title with a dominant performance against Paul Smith (35-5, 20 KOs).
In front of 9,000 fans inside the O2 World in Berlin and a German television audience 4.09 million, ‘King’ Arthur outclassed the ‘Real Gone Kid’ Smith to claim a second unanimous decision victory over the British challenger. After twelve rounds of world championship action the judges scored the fight 117-111, 117-111 and 116-112, cementing Abraham’s position at the top of the super middleweight division.
On the undercard, German prospect Enrico Koelling (16-1, 6 KOs) was unable to emulate Abraham’s success. The 24 year-old Berliner lost his WBA Intercontinental Light Heavyweight title to Mirco Ricci (14-2, 4 KOs). The Italian upset the odds to outpoint the home fighter.
British heavyweight David Price (19-2, 16 KOs) returned in style with a technical knockout victory over Irineu Beato Costa Junior (16-3, 14 KOs). An explosive finish saw Price send the Costa Junior to the canvas three times, forcing the Brazilian to retire at the end of the sixth-round.
Burak Sahin (6-0, 6 KOs) continued his run of knock out victories. The heavyweight hopeful had his opponent Maksym Pedyura (14-8-1, 12 KOs) down twice in the third-round before the Ukrainian’s corner threw in towel. Sahin now has a perfect record of six knockout wins from his six professional contests.
Stefan Haertel (4-0) recorded his fourth professional victory with a dominant display against Baptiste Castegnaro (5-4, 2 KOs). Haertel floored the Frenchman in the second-round, but Castegnaro was able to find his feet and go the distance, despite suffering a nasty cut over his left eye. After six-rounds of action the three judges scored the fight 60-53, 60-53 and 59-54 for the home fighter.
British-boxer Josh Warrington (20-0, 4 KOs) improved to 20-0 with the fifth round stoppage of Edwin Tellez (9-12-5, 4 KOs). The European Featherweight Champion impressed in front of a vocal army of travelling supporters, outworking and outclassing his Nicaraguan opponent. Tellez was spared further punishment when his corner threw in the towel with 1 minute 51 seconds gone in the fifth round.
In the first fight of the evening, German cruiserweight prospect Noel Gevor (16-0, 9 KOs) battled his way to a deserved unanimous decision victory against Alejandro Emilio Valori (16-7, 12 KOs). The 24 year-old from Hamburg had his opponent hurt in the sixth-round but was unable to stop the experienced Argentinian. After eight hard fought rounds all three judges scored the fight 78-74 in favour of Gevor.
