Tatli Holds Off Game Ballisai/Wahlström Defeats Santana

By Mikko Salo at ringside: Two out of three best Finnish prizefighters, lightweight contender “Prince” Edis Tatli (27-1, 9 KO) and super featherweight Eva Wahlström (17-0-1, 3 KO) were in action on Friday 18^th March in Espoo’s Metro Areena,Finland.

The third member of the Finnish world-class trio, heavyweight contender Robert Helenius watched ringside. Helenius is currently in training for his upcoming bout against Frenchman Johann Duhaupas, taking place in Helsinki’s Hartwall Areena on 2^nd April.

In the main event Edis Tatli scored a solid victory against game Massimiliano Ballisai (20-3, 12 KO) by outpointing the Italian in an entertaining contest. Ballisai took the fight on a fairly short notice after a bizarre situation where British former top ten contender Kevin Mitchell, after signing on the dotted line, decided to retire rather than travel to Finland as a potential stepping stone for the 28-year-old Finn.

In the two opening rounds it looked like the seemingly bigger Tatli is going to walk over his smaller opponent. Tatli stalked Ballisai, firing effective combinations at the retreating Italian. After surviving Tatli’s early onslaught Ballisai began to do some damage of his own, probably more so than Tatli and his team had bargained for. The Italian refused to wilt under pressure, scoring with some big shots of his own, occasionally taking initiative into his own hands. This writer scored rounds three and five to Ballisai in the first half of the fight.

Gradually Tatli got into his rhythm during the second half of the contest. He was able to win most of the exchanges with good combination punching and footwork. The last round saw both fighters putting everything on the line, dishing out and taking punishment in the process. The judges saw it 117-111, 118-110 twice for Tatli, this writer had it 117-111.

With the win Tatli, ranked currently #20 by Boxrec.com, continues the hunt for a chance to land another fight against one of the top ten contenders of the lightweight division. The talented Finn’s lone loss came against one of the absolute best in dropping a majority decision to Richar Abril in September 2014. The ultimate prize, The Lightweight Lineal Throne is vacant after Undisputed Champion - recognized by both Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and The Ring Magazine - Terence Crawford moved up in weight. Current TBRB and The Ring #1 and #2 lightweight contenders are Montenegro’s Dejan Zlaticanin (#1 TBRB, #2 The Ring) and Venezuelan Jorge Linares (#2 TBRB, #1 The Ring).

One of the world’s best female super featherweights Eva Wahlström (17-0-1, 3 KO) faced her toughest test yet in Dominican Republic’s Dahiana Santana (35-8, 14 KO). The fighters came into the event ranked #2 (Wahlström) and #4 (Santana) in their division by Boxrec.com. After a feeling-out first round Santana was the more active boxer in the second round and notched the round in this writer`s scorecard. From then on it was pretty much the skillful Wahlström who dictated the pace and goings-on inside the ring. She used her superior mobility and handspeed to pocket rounds, gradually increasing the gap in the scorecards. The judges had the 10-round fight 99-91 and 99-92 twice. This writer had the score 97-94. Santana was a crafty opponent, who gave Wahlström all she could handle in the toughest fight of her brilliant career. With the win the 35-year-old Wahlström rises past German Ramona Kuehne (24-1, 9 KO) and is currently ranked as the #1 female super featherweight in the world by Boxrec.com. A showdown with Kuehne would be an absolute treat and would definitely fill a large amount of seats in Wahlström’s hometown Helsinki.

On the undercard up-and-coming super middleweight Niklas Räsänen (12-0, 7 KO) returned from injury layoff against soft opposition, scoring a 2^nd round TKO over Frenchman Matiouze Royer (14-24-6, 3 KO). Other undercard bouts saw lightweight Tuomo Eronen (15-4) score a fifth round KO over Serif Gurdijeljac (7-3), middleweight Ricardo Morales (2-0) UD 4 over Juris Ivanovs (8-31-2), cruiserweight Gennadi Mentsikainen (2-0) MD 4 over Dusan Krstin (5-3), lightweight Emmanuel Amiot (2-1) TKO 4 over Jesse Jouhki (3-1) and super welterweight Nourdeen Toure (6-1) UD 6 over Michael Obin (5-6).