Konstantin Airich knockout Ondrej Pala to become WBO European heavyweight champion – Boxing news
Konstantin Airich, the current IBF intercontinental champion, finally avenged his previous loss in a charismatic way by knocking out Ondrej Pala and by relinquishing him of his WBO European heavyweight title.
The duo headlined the event promoted by Ahmet Oener of Arena Box-Promotion and the ring for the bout was set up at Ataturk Spor Salonu situated in Tekirdag, Turkey. The 12-round title bout was televised by EU Eurosport on March 9, 2012.
Airich was bound to defend his Intercontinental gold and Pala was putting his WBO European heavyweight title on the line. This is the second time that both men stood against each other but with a bit difference.
In 2009, both men collided in a non-title bout as compared to the Friday night title skirmish. Moreover, the previous engagement was a 10-round encounter and was won by Pala via majority decision.
Since then Airich has been eyeballing Pala for a second final showdown to tell the world that his claims of almost winning the 2009 bout were authentic. Airich was entering in his career’s 30th bout. The German 33-year-old has won 22 of his bouts and a whopping
16 by knockout.
Pala, on the other hand, possessed a pretty intimidating resume. The 27-year-old Czech has been in a total 32 bouts and emerged triumphant in 30. He has won a whopping 21 bouts by knockout.
Before the brawl everyone was favouring the young Czech who is ranked number one in his home country and secures 16th place in the world rankings as compared to Airich’s 86th. Airich, infamous as the ‘Sandman’, was seriously outclassed by Pala in various
facets.
Pala was on a long winning streak as compared to Airich, in addition he boasted a very intimidating win-loss percentage as compared to the Berliner Airich. Furthermore, Pala has a prior win over Airich in 2009.
All these deficiencies were nullified by Airich and he overcame the odds by ending the feud in just the ninth round via total knockout. Pala lost his WBO title and Airich added not only a title round his waist but further fortified his streak.
After the bout, Airich, excited at becoming the WBO European heavyweight champion, said, “I am very proud that I can bring another belt home to my son. I thank everybody who kept on believing in me especially in the hard times I went through – foremost,
of course, my family and my coach Hans-Jurgen Witte.”
Airich now has 23 wins in his account and 17 by knockout whereas Pala has collected his third career defeat. Konstantin is now not only the IBF Intercontinental heavyweight champion but also the WBO European heavyweight champion as well.
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