Berlin has a new boxing world champion! Mohamed Abou-Chaker is the GBC junior middleweight world champion. He won the title against Mexican Zaid Hernandez Cortes in the sold-out Ofen-Stadthalle Velten.
On Saturday, Velten showed just how loud boxing can be in Brandenburg. The hall vibrated from the very first bell. Responsible for the fireworks was organizer Dorothea Ring, who not only put on a first-class evening, but also manages the crowd-puller Abou-Chaker. If you wanted a quiet Saturday night, you really came to the wrong place.
Twelve fights were on the program. The main fight of the evening featured the unbeaten Mohamed Abou-Chaker from Berlin, seven fights, seven wins, five of them early. His opponent, Mexican Zaid Hernandez Cortes, came into the ring with five knockouts from five wins and three defeats and was determined to show that he was more than just a stopover. Two southpaws, both focused, both under tension. Abou-Chaker was a force and took command at the first bell. The Berliner exerted massive pressure and put the Mexican under fire early on. In the very first round, a precise left-right combination sent Hernandez Cortes to the floor. The referee had to call a count.
From then on, the disparity increased. Hernandez Cortes began to visibly break under Abou-Chaker’s hard, straightforward attacks. The Berlin worked with technically brilliant combinations, controlling distance and pace at will. The Mexican’s eyes swelled increasingly, every punch had an effect. Hernandez Cortes crossed himself before each new round. But no routine or ritual helped against Abou-Chaker’s merciless forward momentum. The next knockdown followed in the sixth round. The Mexican went down again and finally gave up in the break. He remained seated in the corner – the sign was clear. Abou-Chaker thus secured the Global Boxing Council junior middleweight world championship.
“It wasn’t boxing. It was a brawl”
The evening began intensely and tensely for cruiserweight Justin Marvin Hoffmann and Feras Alnimer. It was clear from the start that this was not a duel between two athletes who would become friends for life. The dislike was palpable, even in the back rows. The encounter became increasingly messy. Time and again, referee Sergey Kovalenko had to intervene and separate the two brawlers. But instead of calming down or following his instructions, Hoffmann and Alnimer clashed again, butting heads and lacking any semblance of a fair boxing match. Kovalenko eventually stopped the fight. His reasoning was clear: “It wasn’t boxing, it was a brawl. I tried several times to separate the two of them. Instead of separating, they got into an increasingly violent fight. Something like that has nothing to do with sport and certainly nothing to do with boxing.”
A fight that, instead of a sporting result, showed above all how quickly a duel can tip over when personal tensions take control. Maurice Milcke hardly needed any time this time to underline his class in the middleweight division. The fight against England’s John Watson ended after just 1:10 minutes in the first round. A cleanly placed right punch to the forehead of his opponent was enough. The Englishman went down heavily and was unable to continue the fight.
Milcke thus showed that the step up to the higher limit is not only feasible for him, but also a further development. Watson, who had moved down from light heavyweight, wanted to test Milcke with experience and physicality. Instead, it was a short evening for him. Milcke’s convincing knockout victory left no questions unanswered.
The remaining eight fights of the evening also had plenty of explosive material. Up-and-coming talent and ring foxes fought duels that kept the audience on the edge of their seats. There was power, counter-attacking, suffering and cheering. Velten experienced an evening in which talents shone, veterans didn’t look old and a hall shook with enthusiasm. With this event, Dorothea Ring proved that great boxing does not only take place in metropolitan areas, but wherever people are in the mood for drama, courage and honest fists.
Text by Wolfgang Wycisk