Trout, Graeff, Arslan and Hernandez win

The fight card organized by promoter Karim Akkar (Legacy International Boxing Series) and matchmaker Flavio Oleaga Mirabal in the historic town hall in Wuppertal can be considered a great success! Overall, all protagonists were convincing!

Arslan before another World Cup chance, Smakici doesn’t hesitate

Firat Arslan (52-9-3, 37 KOs), who will soon be 52, has come a step closer to his dream of another World Championship fight. In a cruiserweight ranked match against Argentinian Juan Rodolfo Juarez (20-7-0, 14 KOs), southpaw Arslan was able to “close the bag” in the second round after a brief sampling phase in round one by hitting Juarez with head-to-body hits and carried a liver hook twice onto the boards before the towel flew out of the corner of the overwhelmed Argentine.

The ex-champion from Süßen (Baden-Württemberg) now hopes to get another big fight at the end of his career. Preferably in January next year in the EWS Arena in Göppingen, as Arslan revealed in the post-fight interview.

Agron Smakici (19-1-0, 16 KOs) also made short work of Fernando Rodrigo Simoes de Almeida in a heavyweight stay-busy fight. Smakici didn’t give the Brazilian a chance and knocked him out with a right swing to the temple just before the end of the first round.

Uwel Hernandez wins on points, Timo Rost with lightning KO

In another highlight of the evening, guest boxer Uwel Hernandez (14-1-0, 7 KOs) secured the WBA Continental title against Kamer Maloku (16-3-0, 13 KOs) with a clear victory on points. In the duel between two normal players, Munich’s Hernandez kept the upper hand over long stretches of the battle, was the more active man, scored the clearer hits and won so clearly with one 98:92 and two 97:94 judges’ votes.

Ex-Sturm opponent Timo Rost also competed on the fight card in Wuppertal. In a six-round match, Rost knocked out his completely helpless opponent Mariusz Biskupski with a heavy body shot at the end of the first round

Ramona Graeff secures WBA gold title in super feather

In the highest-quality sporting fight of the evening, Ramona Graeff (4-0-0) was able to win the vacant WBA gold title in the super featherweight division against Venezuelan Alys Sanchez (17-8-1, 6 knockouts). Graeff shone in the ten-round duel with mostly hanging hands through excellent footwork, great avoidance movements, a good eye and a sense of distance and was clearly superior to her opponent in the otherwise unspectacular fight.

So Graeff finally won with 3x 99:91 judges’ votes. The new champion, who also changed the display several times during the fight, is the new mandatory challenger for the WBA world title in super featherweight.

Austin Trout narrowly beats Cardos on points

In the evening’s main event, former Superwelter champion Austin Trout (35-5-1, 18 KOs) took on Romanian Florin Cardos (21-4-0, 9 KOs). “No Doubt” Trout, who once defeated Miguel Cotto at Madison Square Garden and has been in the ring with Canelo Alvarez, the two Charlo brothers and Erislandy Lara, was considered the main attraction of Fight Night Wuppertal before the fight and THE Draft horse of the young Legacy International Boxing Series. In the eight-round duel between two southpaws (southpaws), Trout was able to score clear hits with his right lead hand or left head hook and also showed himself to be the simply better and more ripped-off boxer. The point judgment, which Trout only won by majority decision (2:0:1), was therefore completely surprising. In particular, the scorecard with 76:76 only causes shaking of the head and can be classified as a total failure, which Trout rightly criticized in the subsequent winner interview.