By Mikko Salo at Ringside: ”Prince” Edis Tatli, the 25-year-old Finnish lightweight prospect took a step up in class by clearly outpointing tough but limited Felix Lora of Dominican Republic at Barona Areena, Espoo, Finland on Saturday night.
Tatli (20-0, 5 KO) was in control from the start and pocketed his career-best win with tallies of 117-110, 116-112 and 119-111, knocking Lora (16-10-5, 9 KO) down in the 12th round. Despite his fairly modest record the 28-year-old Lora has some good wins on his ledger and has been in the ring with some world class boxers, losing a points decision to current Ring Magazine #10 and Transnational Boxing Rankings #6 welterweight contender Devon Alexander on the undercard of Adamek vs Briggs I back in 2005.
Tatli established his jab early and Lora had trouble getting to the slick technician who was ablr to utilize his superior speed to rack up a clear lead by the halfway point of the match. In the 8th round the Spain-based fighter was growing desperate and tried to up the aggression only to be met with some crisp counterpunching from the Kosovo-born Tatli, who moved to Finland as a 6-year-old in the early 1990s. In the 9th round Tatli tagged Lora with a hard right that wobbled the Dominican but the Finn decided not to follow through with the attack. ”Maybe I should have fought a bit more on the inside during the middle stages of the fight”, Tatli said after the match. ”This was a good test for me, it gives you confidence to be able to go 12 rounds at such a good pace. I wasn`t tired and could have gone longer if I wanted to.”
Tatli`s trainer Pekka Mäki was satisfied with his star pupil`s performance. ”Edis could have been a bit more aggressive, but it was a very good win and a good performance. Going full 12 rounds is the master`s degree in boxing and now Edis has that under his belt.” With the win Tatli enters the alphabet ratings. ”After a couple more matches against improving opposition I should be in position to challenge for a major belt”, Tatli predicts.
On the undercard, cruiserweight Juho Haapoja (19-3-1, 12 KO) bounced back from his December 2012 European title fight loss to current Ring #6 cruiserweight contender Mateusz Masternak by retiring Georgian Levan Jomardashvili (29-8, 20 KO) after the 5th round in an ugly contest. Jomardashvili tipped the scales on Friday at an unprofessional 210 pounds, 10 pounds over the cruiserweight limit. ”It wasn`t pretty, but it was a win and it was good to get back in the ring”, said Haapoja.
Also on the undercard, undefeated middleweight Niko Jokinen (20-0, 7 KO) scored a unanimous points win over slick Spaniard Guzman Castillo (8-4, 4 KO) and light heavyweight prospect Eemeli Katajisto (4-0, 3 KO) continued his development by KOing experienced Hungarian Zoltan Kiss Jr. (27-13-3, 11 KO) in the 2nd round. Middleweight Fitim Latifi (5-0, 1 KO) TKOed Hungarian Laszlo Kamhal (6-3, 3 KO) in the 1st round and middleweight Mikko Alanko (2-0) outpointed Renato Toth (0-10-1), also from Hungary, over four rounds.
March 9, 2013
