Nielsen’s Debut Dominates On Nordic Fight Night

Nordic Fight Night at the Ballerup Super Arena near Copenhagen was always going to a mixed bag of boxing, and it didn’t disappoint

Patrick Nielsen’s move up to Super middleweight was always going to be a bit of a risk despite the confidence of his promoter and training team, and with the WBA International title up for grabs against the experienced George Tahdooahnippah, on paper, it was never going to be an easy debut. In the actual ring, it was a slightly different story with the big man from Denmark taking the bout by the scuff of its neck early on and making it his own.

Nordic Fight Night News
• Nielsen wins against Tahdooahnippah
• Ceylan beats Dmitry Kirillov
• Khattah takes Khutsishvili on points

The Nordic fight night was a mixed bag of boxing to say the least with a huge Copenhagen crowd cramming into the Ballerup Super Arena to see a selection of fights that ranged from the massively professional to the almost farcical. Those of you that like to bet on sport in Denmark might well have followed the action with a few Krone on your favored fighters at ComeOn! Sportsbook or the like, but the biggest winner was almost certainly Sauerland promotions.

A successful night’s boxing began with the South African cruiserweight Kevin Lerena going up against the Ukrainian Igor Pylyipenko over six rounds. In the first half of the bout there seemed to be a chance “The Beast” from Zaporozhye would be able to handle “The Lean Mean” from Johannesburg, but in the last three rounds the beast was tamed, spending a lot of time on the back foot, and Lerena won on a unanimous points decision.

This was followed by a six round middleweight bout between Abdul Khattab, the Dane with 10 wins to no losses, and Mikheil Khutsishvili from Georgia whose record is far more a mixed bag at 37-22-5. The Georgian’s ability to take the punishment was evident but he seemed unable to do anything beyond just not getting knocked down by Khattab who, despite landing some excellent punches, had to settle on a points victory.

Norwegians Beat Germans

The ten round Super middleweight fight between Tim-Robin Lihaug of Norway and Slavisa Simeunovic of Germany was all set to be quite the battle on paper, but on the night the German appeared less than entirely comfortable and seemed a tad out of shape. With a couple of hard left hooks to the body in the same region, Simeunovic went down in the second and seemed just as surprised as everyone else when the towel flew in from his corner ending the bout.

Indeed the Norwegians had a good night against the Germans all round with cruiserweight Kai Robin Havnaa finally stopping Patrick Linkert in the fourth, although this was definitely a case of youthful determination over experience as Linkert was just too tired to take advantage of the wild, undisciplined performance from Havnaa that saw him punch the air as often as his opponent. His coach says Havnaa has lots to learn despite his win, which goes down as the understatement of the night.

Perhaps the most dramatic moment of the night came in the super middleweight fight that pitted the Swede Oscar Ahlin (12-0, ten of them Kos) against Mexican Alvaro Gaona (14-5) over eight rounds. After an initial moment of careful consideration by both men Ahlin threw a right that sent Gaona to the canvas, from which he bounced up seeming fine, but a left hook soon afterward put him down and out for good leaving many impressed with Ahlin’s calm performance.

Then came the farce. The heavyweight bout between Otto Wallin (10-0) and David Gegeshidze (14-8-1) should have been an eight round thriller, but it was evident from the start that the Georgian was out of shape and the Swede was having trouble with his timing. Danish gambling laws probably prohibit wagering on bouts this messy, with neither man doing themselves any favors, and Wallin’s win will probably not go down as a high point of his career.

Nielsen Wins Super Middleweight Bout

Dennis “The Menace” Ceylan, fighting in front of a home crowd, was always going to be at an advantage over experienced Russian opponent Dmitry Kirillov, but the fight went the full ten rounds and despite the man from St. Petersburg looking a tad tired in the final three, Ceylan had to work hard to get his victory on points scoring 100-90, 98-92 and 97-93. Kirillov, former flyweight world champion, may still have it, but it’s slower in coming these days.

<img src="/images/newsimages/Nielsen.jpg/" title="Nielsen" alt="Nordic Night Fight" >

The headline fight was, of course, Patrick Nielsen going up against George “Comanche Boy” Tahdooahnippah in a 12 round bout that would decide the WBA International title. Nielsen came out and immediately tried to dominate the contest winning the first couple of rounds before finally managing to land two southpaw left hooks on the native American flooring him. However the Comanche Boy got to his feet and carried on.

This seemed to take some of the confidence out of Nielsen who spent the next five rounds looking for a punch to finish off his opponent in a battle that seemed as endless as the number of online gaming companies in Gibraltar. Finally, however, as the bell rang for the eighth round to start the Comanche’s corner waved off the fight, conceding defeat to a manifestly better boxer on the night.

“This was a really important victory for me, “ said Nielsen afterward, perhaps gambling news reporters might not figure that out just how happy and relieved he was for themselves, “I would of liked to have seem him go down, but I’m really pleased with my performance. I stuck to the game plan and it paid off. At super middleweight I’m stronger and better than ever. Now it’s my time to shine.” It remains to be seen if he’ll still be as chipper after his next fight.