(APR 3) A shooting, which was the sad culmination of a family drama, overshadowed the boxing event which took place in Berlin on April 1st and was organized by Arena Sports-Promotion and Prime Time Events & Entertainment.

The target and one of the victims of the bloodshed was the female boxer Rola El Halabi (11 fights, 11 wins, 6 by KO), who that night was going to go for the IBF world championship.

It is assumed that her stepfather and former manager Roy El-Halabi was trying to prevent her from entering the ring. The quarrel escalated, he drew his gun and shot. Although it is not easy to get reliable information at this stage, it looks like her stepfather purposefully shot Rola El Halabi in her right hand, her knee and both feet. Her two bodyguards, which she had hired as a precaution before the fight, were also hurt, one and of them seriously.

Until that incident, it had been a good and entertaining sporting event with two female boxing fights that were well worth seeing. The first match of the evening had Jennifer Retzke (12 fights, 11 wins, 8 by KO, 1 defeat) against Eva Halasi (13 fights, 9 wins, 8 by KO, 4 defeats, 3 by KO) in a fight for the IBF world championship in junior middleweight, which Retzke won by TKO.

Halasi fought going backwards all the time and limited herself to very effective counters. Retzke just kept going forward, sometimes she even rushed her opponent. She fought purposefully but her guard was little to nothing and her jabs often went wild. Again and again Retzke had to take Halasi’s jab and left/right combinations. Then came the fifth round. Retzke landed a hook to Halasi’s head, which completely turned the dramatic match around. Halasi said later that she had not been able to continue because of an injury to her foot. To me it rather looked like exhaustion.

The last fight of the evening, the award ceremony of which was overshadowed by the bloody events that had taken place in the cabins, was between Asiye Özlem Sahin (13 fight, 12 wins, 4 by KO, 1 draw) and Evgeniya Zablotskaya (8 fights, 3 wins, 1 by KO, 5 defeats, 2 by KO). The 8 rounder in light flyweight was definitely the best match of the evening. Zablotskaya started fast and furiously and in the first round almost dazzled Sahin with constant flurries of punches.

The following rounds were hard fought until the end. Sahin kept driving the taller Zablotskaya before her. Again and again there were series of sharp exchanges of blows with both boxers being very versatile. In the end Sahin clearly won on points. This match was a great advertisement for female boxing.

(C) Uwe Betker