8 June 2013
Late last night and into the early hours of Saturday morning, at the 'Bugibba Hotel, in Qawra, Malta - Malta’s Daniel Micallef became the new ‘Malta Boxing Council’ International Lightweight Champion after defeating Mercen Gierke, in a hard fought ten round battle which had the crowd excited and on edge.
In round one there was little action with both boxers settling in and sizing each other up, in round two both boxers started to open up with intelligent jabbing and occasional combinations to the body, round 3 Micallef opens with some hard shots to the torso but Gierke quickly recovers, the action is going back and forth but Micallef seem to have the edge on his opponent, at the end of round six Gierke claims a head butt, the crowd quickly shows its displeasure, in round seven Micallef seems more cautious a few combination on the part of Micallef but largely an uneventful round. Round eight and Gierke seems to have got his second wind and is showing a comeback into the fight but Micallef surges back, by round nine the crowd feels that victory is close for their local man and are heartily showing their approval. Gierke make a last effort to try and snatch victory in the closing minutes but Micallef was having none of that and agile footwork kept him out of harms way. A jubilant crowd showed their appreciation as Micallef was crowned as the new MBC international light weight champion.
This fight was preceded by three other bouts. Former commonwealth champion David Burke made short work of disposing of Italian, Pier Paulo Cardinali. The Italian had little to offer to the superior Englishman and was sent packing by the second round.
And popular local professional Clayton Vella lost to Chris Debono. Debono was given a much deserved unanimous victory. Vella gave a lacklustre performance which disappointed his fans.
The first fight of the evening was Brahim Zidar against professional debutant Ali Turkogillari of Turkey, scheduled for four rounds but ended by TKO when Zidar failed to come out of his corner for the second round.
There were also a number of boxing bouts and displays in the first part of the show by a number of boxers who kept the crowd entertained until the arrival of the special guest of the night, Parliamentary Secretary of Sport, Mr. Stephan Buontempo.
Former professional boxer Vince Bongalias, nowadays an elected councillor in his home town of Kalkara, Malta, was also present to support the Maltese boxers. Mr. Bongalias is also a former coach to the new MBC international champion Edwin Micallef.
MBC President Eva Rolle congratulated the winners and the new champion and argued that this show was just the beginning of more professional boxing shows in Malta, that would take the Maltese professional boxer to higher and better places at the international level.
Photo Credit: David Mifsud
More Boxing Photos by David Mifsud