Roman Fress, Artur Reis win despite injuries in Magdeburg

All the action from Magdeburg, Germany, as Fress and Reis overcome injuries to win

(Pete Carvill)

German super-middleweight Artur Reis won a wide unanimous decision over Mate Rudan for the IBF European title at the weekend.

Hosted outside at the Seebuehne in Magdeburg, the headline bout saw Reis, now 15-1 (9), beat the Croatian Rudan, now 8-1 (7), by scores of 97-93, 98-92, and 98-93.

The bout, which was for the vacant European title sanctioned by the IBF, co-headlined an evening that also saw cruiserweight Roman Fress win a ten-round decision over Michael Seitz, now 13-2 (11), for the vacant WBO intercontinental cruiserweight title. Fress had previously held the same title, which he lost in 2022 on a split decision to Armend Xhoxhaj.

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It is understood, through reports in German media, that Fress broke his hand during the bout on Saturday night. Despite the injury, Fress won by scores of 96-93, 97-92, and 97-91.

Fress’s coach, former world champion Robert Stieglitz said that he was looking to move Fress into a world-championship fight in his next bout.

Stieglitz told the German newspaper BILD: "I assume that his next fight will be a world championship or a European Championship. He deserves it. He is in the top 15 in all four important world rankings, and even in the top ten in two."

Fress, aged thirty-one, comes originally from Kazakhstan and is ranked at #20 in the world, according to BoxRec. As of last month, he was ranked sixth in the WBO rankings behind Michal Cieslak, Callum Johnson, Tahir Kahrovic, Chris Billam-Smith, and Kevin Melhus. The WBO’s current champion at cruiserweight is Gilberto Ramirez.

Meanwhile, coheadliner Artur Reis was involved in a bloody battle with Mate Rudan for their title fight. After the Croatian Rudan picked up two cuts early in the fight, Reis also began to bleed as the fight went down its home stretch.

Promoter Ulf Steinforth said: "This was already a very special and an extremely emotional SES event for all of us. Our two title fighters Roman Fress and Artur Reis delivered and offered great fights. They both have their new international titles and we can now take the next steps on the 'way up'.”

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The event was held to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of promoters SES, who are one of Germany’s leading promoters. According to SES Boxing, there were 2,500 people in attendance.

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