By Per Ake Persson

Juho Haapoja lost the EU cruiserweight title last night in Kauhava, Finland, to Alexandru Jur on a split call. The judges had it 117-111 and 118-111 for Jur and 117-111 Haaopja. However, Haapoja made no excuses and said that the better man won and he announced his retirement.

Juho began his career as a heavyweight and then dropped all the way down to light heavyweight before settling in as a cruiserweight. He leaves the game at 28-8-2-1 and will be remembered for his fighting spirit and big heart.

As for Alexandru Jur, he´s now 16-1, born in Romania he´s fought most of his career in Belgium before relocating to Italy.

On the undercard in Kauhava super middle Henri Kekalainen, 10-4, outscored Timo Laine, 20-9-0-1, to win the vacant national title and super lightweights Jarkko Putkonen, 15-3-2, and Mohamed Khalladi, 8-7-1, drew over eight.

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Flyweight Mohammed Obbadi was stopped by Nicaraguan Cristofer Rosales in seven with the vacant WBC Int´l at stake in the headliner of this Boxe Loreni promotion in Pordenone.

In other action Nicola Pietro Ciriani won the vacant Italian light heavyweight title with a technical decision over Stefano Abatangelo and Pasquale Di Silvio won the vacant national title at lightweight with a unanimous decision over Francesco Invernizio.

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Cecilia Braekhus vs. Mikaela Lauren was not the only professional boxing event in Norway last night. In Skien, Melhus Promotions had 3,000 spectators on hand for an event billed as "This is my house".

On top of that event - Katharina Thanderz, a Norwegian living in Spain, won the vacant EBU female super featherweight title with a points win over Maria Semertzoglu from Greece. This was the first EBU fight in Norway since the 1970´s and also the first show sanctioned by a Norwegian Federation since 1980.