Arthur Abraham retained his WBO World Super Middleweight title with a sensational sixth-round stoppage of Robert Stieglitz in front of a sell-out crowd at the Gerry Weber Stadium in Halle.
In a fight billed as the ‘Final Showdown’, Abraham had promised to bring a conclusive finish to his longstanding rivalry with Stieglitz, which had seen the boxers contest the WBO title on three previous occasions. On Saturday night, the champion delivered, retaining his title in style with an emphatic victory against his mandatory challenger.
Abraham started strongly, asserting his dominance and dropping Stieglitz with a powerful jab in the second round. In the sixth-round a devastating straight right found it’s target and sent the Stieglitz sprawling to the canvas. The challenger bravely beat the count but his corner threw in the towel forcing the referee to call a halt to the action and scoring Abraham his seventh successive world title defence.
As chief support, Vincent Fiegenbutz got his first taste of world glory. The 17 year-old German knockout specialist defeated his Peruvian opponent Mauricio Reynoso with a third-round TKO to claim the Interim WBA World Super Middleweight title.
On the undercard, London 2012 Olympic Bronze medallist Anthony Ogogo defeated Ruslan Schelev (UD6), Enrico Koelling outpointed Vasyl Kondor (UD8), Stefan Haertel beat Maurice Possiti (UD6), Noel Gevor dominated Vasyl Kondor (UD8), Leon Bauer stopped Misa Nikolic (TKO2) and Mike Keta claimed the vacant WBC Eurasia Pacific Boxing Council middleweight title against Aliklych Kanbolatov (KO3).
