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It was a big night for the World
Boxing Federation at a sold-out
Sportpark Arena in Ljubljana,
Slovenia on Friday, Feb. 18,
with two championship bouts that
more than lived up to what they
promised beforehand.
In a female world title bout,
unbeaten Christina Hammer, now
9-0 (7), captured the vacant WBF
middleweight belt (to add to the
WBO belt she already holds but
not defended in this fight) by
impressively overpowering
Hungary’s Diana Kiss and in the
process solidify her boxrec # 1
world rating.
Kiss came with solid credentials
in this clash of 20-year-olds,
but Hammer, from Dortmund,
Germany and managed by SES
Boxing who staged this show,
left no doubt why she is the
foremost female middleweight on
the planet at the moment. When
Christina finally put her foot
on the gas in round seven, there
immediately was a huge gap in
class visible and she severely
punished Kiss to the extend that
the girl from Budapest declined
to come out for round eight.
“Had she kept on taking these
kind of punches, I would have
become perplexed! The WBF belt
is beautiful and I’m happy to
wear it now,” said Christina
after the fight.
In the second WBF fight of the
night, International
lightheavyweight champion Denis
Simcic successfully defended his
title for the third time with a
unanimous decision over stubborn
Georgian challenger Sandro
Siproshvili.
Although Siproshvili, who lives
in Prague, was probably Denis’
toughest opponent to date, the
Slovenian born in Germany lived
up to the challenge in a great
way. Simcic was faster all the
way through, both mentally and
with hands and feet and from
time to time actually landed
power shots on the incoming
challenger’s iron jaw.
Apart from a nose bleed early in
the fight and a six round in
which the defending champion
needed a rest, Simcic came
through with flying colours in
what must be a career-best
performance. He is now 26-1 (14)
and his manager Ulf Steinforth
may well look for a WBF world
title shot later this year.
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