Denmark Hosts Nordic Fight Night 2 – Going For Gold

There were a mixture of fights on the card, and on the night most of the boxing world was focusing on Vegas, but the second Nordic Fight Night was a great show

Sauerland Promotion’s Nordic Fight Night 2 – Going For Gold went off without a hitch providing a superb array of boxing right in the heart of Denmark’s Copenhagen and with Danish gambling laws amenable to the 21st century, unlike some of its neighbors, more than few people took to ComeOn! Sportsbook and its ilk to back their favorite fighters as the bell rang and some interesting pairs took to the ring on Saturday.

Nordic Fight Night 2

• Nielsen beats Ascosta
• Farias retains her belt
• Khattab & Ahlin both lose

Certainly the weekend was dominated by the fight in Vegas where Mayweather beat Pacquiao, but there were plenty of thrills and spills in the ring in Frederiksberg-Hallerne. A mixed card of bouts saw numerous fighters from across the region come up against experienced apposite opposition and some of the performances were a delight to watch. However not all the hopefuls from the Nordic countries did as well as they might have wished.

First up was the Dane Rashid Kassem who went in 7-0-0 & 4 KOs up against fellow lightweight Anto Nakic who was 2-3-0 with 1 KO to his name. The super lightweight bout was scheduled for six rounds but when “The Dream” Kassem started to put pressure on Nakic in the second the Croatian went down, only getting up long enough to be taken down again by a massive right from Kassem. Nakic was counted out, and Kassem remains undefeated at 8-0-0 & 5 KOs.

Next came the super middleweight bout between Norwegian Simen “The North Sea Defender” Smaadal and longtime veteran Volodymyr Borovskyy. An aggressive and explosive start from Smaadal actually saw Borovskyy floored in the second round, but this seemed to wake up the experienced man from Ukraine who made the rest of the fight less than easy for Smaadal who had to be satisfied with a unanimous victory on points and 100,000 Krona from his sponsors.

Hagen, Lihaug & Wallin All Win

Light heavyweights Alexander Hagen and Latvian Oleg Fedotov got in the ring together but it would seem only one of them had their head in the fight. Although Fedotov never looked immensely troubled by the Norwegian, even when slammed by hard rights, he wasn’t scoring enough in rounds that at times felt a bit one-sided. If he was looking for that lucky winner it didn’t come and at the end it went 60-54 in favor of Hagen on all cards.

Fellow Norwegian Tim Robin Lihaug was up against Hungarian Istvan Zeller of whom he made comparatively light work. The super middle weight bout was stopped midway through the 3rd after Zeller took a heavy bodyshot from the 22 year old who had been on top of the fight from the off. This moves Lihaug up to 12-1 with 7 KOs and makes his prospects look as good as his performance in the ring on Saturday.

Swede Otto Wallin went into his heavyweight fight against the big Georgian Beka Lobjanidze unbeaten, and indeed heavily backed by those that like to bet on sports in Denmark to remain so and whilst it wasn’t perhaps as swift a victory as he’d anticipated the fourth round knockout was pretty conclusive and it seemed Beka Lobjanidze hadn’t quite bounced back from his first defeat in February, something Wallin capitalized upon in the ring.

Oscar “Golden Boy” Ahlin stepped up to face Donfack but couldn’t seem to get his act together and by no means had an easy time of it with his opponent not just holding his own but dominating. With the scores 77-74, 77-74 & 76-74 Ahlin suffered his first defeat on points which leaves him with a record of 12-1 & 10 KOs, but although the golden sheen might be tarnished a little at just 25 the young fighter has time to find and return to form.

Khattab & Anlin Both Suffer First Defeats

Abdul Khattab went up against fellow middleweight Howard Cospolite and the Frenchman seemed to be having the best of the bout as Khattab tried to cling on to his own unbeaten record. However it was perhaps the experience of losing four times before that drove Cospolite on and he finally got a 5th round stoppage victory over the Dane in front of his home crowd, leaving the 22 year old with a 11-1 record with just 3 KOs to his name.

The glamor fight of the night was of course Erica Anabella Farias defending her WBC Female world light welterweight belt against the Swedish Princess Klara Svensson. Although popular amongst the crowd the unbeaten blonde fighter found the 30 year old Argentinian a tough nut to crack and the unanimous decision against her 98-92, 96-93 & 96-94 left her with a maiden defeat and Farias with an even tighter grip on her title.

Patrick Nielsen, stepping up for younger brother Micki, got his third straight win in a pretty one-sided battle against Ruben Acosta, with none of the judges able to give Acosta even a single round in the fight that saw Nielsen move up to 25-1 and might put him in contention for a title later in the year. Nielsen is now on 25-1 & 12KOs and whilst the super middleweight world is full of good fighters there are many gambling news of his contesting a belt will be announced soon.

All in all the night was a great success for Sauerland Promotions but with Braekhus, the undisputed female welterweight world champion leaving them to hitch up with Klitschko’s K2 managerial companies, they’re left with Svensson not at all looking like the replacement they might have wished for, and there could be tricky times ahead for the Nordic boxing promoters. Just how tricky? You’ll have to keep tabs on our daily news pages or ask Michael Purchas to find out.