[kenyan_cheena]

Melbourne Herald-Sun

THURSDAY 15 JUNE 2006

Somogyi dominates Wanganeen
in IBL debut

Story by Les Hayes

Talented light-heavyweight boxer Mark Somogyi made a victorious start to the International Boxing League's Inter-Continental Championship tournament yesterday, scoring a convincing unanimous decision win over fellow Melbournian Jason Wanganeen in Berlin (59-55, 60-54, 59-55). It was the second time the two had faced off against each other, Somogyi also winning the first encounter almost twelve months ago. It was simply the luck of the draw that saw this rematch take place as Somogyi is the tournament's 6th seed, Wanganeen #11. The victory improved Somogyi's record to 10-0(7), Wanganeen falling to 6-2(6). Regarded as the best light-heavyweight in the Asian region, Somogyi was never troubled during the one-sided contest, Wanganeen unable to make any impact throughout the bout. Somogyi outlanded him by an almost 5:1 ratio (229-48) and it was something of a minor miracle that the fight lasted the distance.

Somogyi is scheduled to take on another fellow Aussie in the quarter-finals, the New South Welshman Tony Mundine who was also a unanimous decision winner last night. Mundine (13-2-1(8)) had been fighting at super-middleweight before signing to compete as a light-heavy in the IBL and had been spoken of as a potential opponent for Somogyi last year. Their clash should be an interesting one, to say the least. In other bouts on the card top-seeded German Klaus Bierhoff was lucky to survive a great fightback from Finland's Jukka Koivisto before claiming a majority decision win while the hard-hitting 2nd-seeded Englishman Alexander Lucas floored Sydneysider Ali Habib four times on the way to a 5th round KO.

There was an upset result in the evening's fifth bout with the stylish Frenchman Petite Fourie recovering from a 2nd round knockdown to rally strongly and defeat crowd favourite and 4th seed Willi Hoepner by split decision (58-55, 56-57, 58-56). It was the first big test of Fourie's career and he passed it admirably, his record now 7-0(3). Fourie is not an aggressive fighter but he came out of his shell considerably in the 4th round, stunning Hoepner with a series of combinations that had the German looking tired as he returned to his corner. Fourie continued to dominate in the final two rounds and swept two of the scorecards in those final three stanzas. Already thought of as a young man with tremendous promise the 23 year-old should be considered a dark horse to claim the championship, according to experts.