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On a night that was overshadowed
by the giant WBF show in South
Africa, undefeated German-Turk Hizni
Altunkaya almost silently
arrived on the world stage by
capturing the interim version of
the WBF world cruiserweight
title via a clear, unanimous
decision over German-Italian
Daniel Knieps in Neuwied,
Germany on Saturday (Nov. 19).
Both fighters went into their
first scheduled 12-rounder with
unblemished records: Altunkaya
was 18-0 (11) while the
22-year-old Knieps arrived with
a perfect 29-0 (14) log. In the
end, the sheer physical force of
the 23-year old hometown
favourite was too much for the
lighter Knieps (who was born as
Salvatore Aiello) to handle. He
never made things easy for Hizni,
but over the distance one could
see why Knieps spend most of his
career at lightheavyweight.
After a clean fight which
rendered Luxembourg referee
Tonio Tiberi almost redundant,
'The Warrior' Altunkaya was
relieved and said:
"It was hard, and I felt up
until the end that I had to do
more. I was afraid it was
close."
It wasn't. Both Arnold Golger
(Germany) and Dominique Schmit
(Luxembourg) had it 119:109
while Jean Marcel Nartz
(Germany) was more generous to
Knieps with his 117:111 score.
The show was promoted by Hizni's
brother, and former pro himself,
Turhan Altunkaya's outfit Punch
Up Boxing, who also handle WBF
Intercontinental cruiserweight
champion Ben Nsafoah.
Earlier in the evening, Ilunga
Makabu had captured the full
version of the WBF world title
on the other side of the globe
in South Africa and the World
Boxing Federation has now
ordered Makabu to meet Altunkaya
within the next nine months to
determine the sole cruiserweight
ruler.
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