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Ghana’s German-based Ben Nsafoah
went into the lions den – and
tamed the lion to snatch the
vacant WBF Intercontinental
cruiserweight crown Saturday
night (Oct. 22) in Tuebingen,
Germany by inflicting the first
pro defeat on local favourite
Bjoern Blaschke.
However, the 33-year-old
Blaschke – who went into the
fight as the reigning WBF
International champion – fought
a manly battle and the pair
delivered a true classic over
the 12 round distance to the
delight of a packed house of
almost 3.000 ecstatic fans.
Although Bjoern, cut and bruised
over the right eye, threw
himself forward until the last
bell and certainly did not
disappoint, Nsafoah was overall
always a step ahead and
deservedly took the unanimous
nod to resurrect his career.
From the first bell, Blaschke’s
following screamed itself into a
frenzy, but it was the
29-year-old Ghanaian whose
better boxing won him the first
two rounds. Then Bjoern roughed
Ben up, who lost concentration
and momentum, and the score was
even after four stanzas. But
Nsafoah got himself together
again and started to assert
authority on the fight from
round five onwards. He was the
stronger man and the harder
puncher, which turned things
into an uphill battle for the
local man.
When Ben knocked Blaschke down
in round ten, the fight seemed
over – only for Nsafoah to start
celebrating, which interrupted
referee Hans-Joachim Karge’s
count and gave Blaschke precious
time to recover. In fact, he
came back so determined that two
judges only gave this round to
Nsafoah by 10:9 margins!
But the fight was well
determined on the cards anyway
by that point due to the
knockdown. The last two rounds,
Blaschke gave all he had with
his fans standing on the chairs
and around the ring – and
Nsafoah happily obliged and the
pair battled it out until the
last second of a truely exciting
fight.
Sportingly, Blaschke admitted
that Nsafoah proved the better
man on the night and that was
reflected in the unanimous
scores of the three judges, who
gave Nsafoah his second World
Boxing Federation title (he is a
previous holder of the
International belt) by 117:114,
117:112 and 116:114.
The new Intercontinental
champion improved his record to
14-5-2 (7) with easily his best
career win so far. Early this
year, Nsafoah suffered his third
consecutive loss and looked on
the way to a journeyman, but
then he turned his career around
and the exciting win over
Blaschke was now his fifth in a
row and makes him look forward
to bigger and better things in
2012.
Promoter Turhan Altunkaya of
PunchUp Boxing looks to bring
back his new Intercontinental
champion already next month. |
