Tatli Regains European Crown

Edis Tatli (30–2) regained the European lightweight crown with a clear unanimous decision over Francesco Patera (18–3).

It was a hard and entertaining fight, as Patera refused to surrender his EBU belt easily, but in the end Tatli was too determined and powerful for the Belgian to handle.

Both fighters looked sharp in the opening round. Soon Tatli started to show his power and mounted pressure on his opponent, forcing Patera to back down. Tatli scored with good right hand shots in the second round, but Patera returned fire. Both continued to throw punches throughout the opening rounds, but it was Tatli whose punches seemed to have more effect.

Patera looked stronger in the fourth and managed to push back the charging Finn. Tatli started to throw less right hand punches in the fifth, which raised question whether his hand was injured or not. Patera got more room to maneuver and got in some good combinations.

In the sixth Tatli peppered Patera with jabs and one-twos, and Patera answered with combinations and a good left hook to the body. Tatli started to control the action again in the eighth, this time looking for an opening for a hard left hook. The ninth was clearly Tatli’s round as the Finn stalked his opponent across the ring and landed good shots with both hands.

Patera came back in the eleventh but couldn’t handle the stronger challenger. Tatli tried his hardest to score a knockout, but Patera manage to move to of the way. In the end all judges scored the fight 119–109 for Tatli.

Welterweight Oskari Metz (5–0) scored his first knockout flooring Dzianis Yahoranka (1–4) in the opening round. Yahoranka scored with some good uppercuts, as Metz pushed forward, but soon Metz caught his man with a vicious right hand that sent the Belarusian on the canvas. Yahoranka got up, but Metz went right back at him pummeling his opponent with a barrage of punches. The time of stoppage was 2:43.

Super middleweight Timo Laine (21–9) wanted to make quick work of Pjotr Filatov (1–3–1) and started to throw hard punches from the opening bell. This opened him up for counters, and Filatov scored with some good right hand shots as Laine attacked. Laine however got the upper hand and continued his aggression while Filatov was forced to survive by clinching.

Filatov gave everything he had in the fourth and final round, but Laine hurt him with a blistering right hand and again twice with a right to the body. Filatov managed to stay on his feet and Laine was awarded the unanimous decision.

Super bantamweight Jose Antonio Sanchez Romero (8–0–1) scored a thunderous knockout victory over Krzysztof Gorowski (10–25). Sanchez looked for an opening for his powerful left hand to the body, and finally in the end of the fourth Rogowski went down from a body shot. This was ruled as a low blow, but in the beginning of fifth Romero went right back to work and dropped Rogowski with a booming hook to the body.

In a super welterweight contest, Aliaksandr Abramenka (17–61–1) had little to offer against Antti Hietala (4–0–1). Hietala dropped Abramenka shortly after the opening bell and battered his opponent for a few rounds until the ref stopped the fight in the third.

Elena Saveleva (3–0) proved to be a force to be reckoned with in the women’s flyweight division. Saveleva dominated Oksana Romanova (9–21–1), dropping Romanova in the first round and pummeling her with shots from all angles. Romanova had no answer for Saveleva’s skills, and the referee finally stopped the beating in the sixth.

In a light heavyweight amateur fight Krenar Aliu won Andrii Isakov by unanimous decision. This was the second fight between the two, as Isakov won the first fight in Ukraine, but Aliu managed to get his revenge with hard overhand right hand counters. Aliu is trained by the former EBU middleweight champion Amin Asikainen.