First, the Swedish shooting star Adrian GRANAT was pitted against the tough Samir Kurtagić in the ring.
Kurtagić boasts a ten year professional career facing world-class boxers like Edmund Gerber, Francesco Pianeta, Carlos Takam, Alexander Dimitrenko, Denis Boytsov and Mariusz Wach and never lost prematurely – until Friday!
The young Swede brought the fight from the first bell and beautiful combinations repeatedly to finish the fight. In the sixth round, there were so many hard hits that the referee had no choice but to cancel the fight. Declaring Granat the winner by TKO.
For Granat, it was the twelfth victory in his twelfth battle (eleven of them ahead of time).
“Adrian has once again demonstrated what an exceptional talent he is,” said promoter Erol Ceylan. “It was good for him that he had to go a few times more rounds than usual. But ultimately, Kurtagić was no match for him. The boy is ready for the world!”
Christian Hammer also showed on Friday night that he wants to attack the top stars again. In the last six years, the 28-year-old has lost only once in February 2015 against Klitschko-slayer Tyson Fury.
That defeat has left him scarred not derailed, but in the Romanian capital Hammer came back impressively opposite the experienced British fighter Michael Sprott.
Former UK champion Sprott holds victories over Timo Hoffmann and Edmund Gerber in his fight record, but was knocked out in the first round after just 1:40 minutes, hard.
“At 28, Christian is in his prime and can hold his own against any heavyweight in the world. We will do everything to ensure that he gets a world title shot within the next year,”promised Ceylan.
In the independent world rankings of BoxRec, Hammer is out in 18th place. Granat is also there and ranked 35th.
In the main fight of the successful Gala in Bucharest, Viorel Simion secured by a unanimous points victory over Alexander Miskirtchian for the IBF Intercontinental champion featherweight title.
After twelve rounds, the judges scored 120-107, 117-110 and 118-109 for Simion. Many boxing experts had probably thought Viorel will not prevail against Miskirtchian. But Viorel clearly dominated his opponent in power punches, technique, and endurance.
