WBA Intercontinental Middleweight Champion Patrick Nielsen (18-0, 8 KOs) continued his winning streak with a clear points victory over Patrick Mendy (14-6, 1 KO) on Saturday night. Fighting in front of 2,131 fans at Blue Water Dokken in Esbjerg, Denmark, Nielsen knocked his opponent down in the fifth with a right to the chin. The “Tiger”, who had won the UK Prizefighter tournament, fought back, but Nielsen remained in control, working well behind his jab en route to his 18th victory. The scores were 117-110, 117-110 and 117-111. “I am happy with my performance,” he said. “This is a good way to start the new year.” Said promoter Nisse Sauerland: “We knew that Mendy would start out strongly but that Patrick would eventually outbox him. This was a good win for him.”
In the co-featured main event, Alexander Miskirtchian retained his European Featherweight Title, holding off a brave challenge from Norway´s Andreas Evensen. “Kid Colombia” came back from a third-round knock down and went toe-to-toe with the champion, who scored another knock-down in the 12th round for the referee to wave the bout off.
On the undercard, rising Swedish light heavyweight Erik Skoglund (15-0, 9 KOs) knocked out Attila Baran in the second round, while Danish hopefuls Dennis Ceylan (vs. Marco Scalia) and Micki Nielsen (vs. Josef Krivka) scored first-round knock-outs. British amateur star Deion Jumah wrapped up a successful first week as a professional, defeating Igor Pylypenko to clinch his second win in as many fights.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
