The most notable action of the night was in Germany as former world title contender Manuel Charr (24-1, 14) and the highly ranked Denis Boytsov (33-0, 26) were both in action. Unfortunately the two highly regarded fighters weren't facing each other in what would have been a genuinely fantastic match up, but both managed to edge their way towards a more notable fight.
For the 27 year old Boytsov it was an easy nights work as he stopped Oleksandr Nesterenko (9-2, 4) in 3 rounds in a bout that was there to keep the rust off Boytsov who has fought just once in the past 12 months. Charr's bout was only slightly more meaningful as he took out Oleksiy Mazikin (14-9-2, 4). Charr, who has had a frustrating few weeks made sure that he didn't take his eye off the ball and recorded his 3rd stoppage victory since his loss to Vitali Klitschko last year.
On the same card as Boytsov and Charr was former Cruiserweight contender Enad Licina (23-4, 13) who stopped the ever popular Marcel Zeller (22-10, 21) who despite his record is becoming a bona-fide professional loser having lost 8 of his last 9.
In Britain the popular and very promising Hughie Fury (6-0, 4) had his best test to date as he out pointed the very experienced Tomas Mrazek (7-41-6, 5) over 6 rounds. The bout gave us the best look at Fury that we've had as he found out not every fighter was going to just drop when he hit them. Also on the card was former Commonwealth champion Sam Sexton (18-3, 7) who claimed an easy decision over the light hitting Czech Jiri Svacina (12-10, 1).
The touted Polish Heavyweight Artur Szpilka (15-0, 11) maintained his unbeaten record as he out pointed the always fun Brian Minto (37-6, 24). Despite the victory Szpilka was made to look very unimpressive and it appears to be only a matter of time before his bubble is burst.
Polish fans not only got to see Szpilka but also Damian Trzcinski (2-1, 1) who stopped Damian Sarzala (0-1) and Marcin Siwy (6-0, 3) who stopped Artsem Hurbo (4-16-1, 3) in 2 relative mismatches.
Staying in Europe, Sweden's Otto Walin (1-0, 1) got off to the dream start in his career as he took out the gigantic Roman Cherney (1-1) in just 177 seconds. The stories coming out about Walin are very promising and we've got to believe the kid has something to him, certainly more than Hungarian Istvan Ruzsinszky (9-7-1, 6) who stopped Csaba Olah (3-73-3, 2).
Across the Atlantic to Canada we actually witnessed 2 upsets on the same card. The previously unbeaten Kevin Cormier (3-1, 3) was stopped in the second round by Bradley Foulagi (1-0, 1) whilst the Canadian Heavyweight champion Julien Collette (8-3, 6) was out pointed by Sandy Pembroke (3-6, 1) over 4 rounds.
In Argentina the experienced Gonzalo Omar Basile (59-8, 28) scored yet another victory as he stopped Victor Dario Gimenez (22-6, 11) and claimed the IBF Latino Heavyweight title. Gimenez was stopped in the 7th round due to a nasty looking injury to his eye.
On the same card the ridiculously out of shape pair of Marcelo Fabian Dominguez (43-7-1, 23) and Miguel Angel Morales (12-13-1, 5) fought to an 8 round decision. Dominguez, a former Cruiserweight world champion (WBC) may have rightfully taken a unanimous decision but he looked a rather over-weight shadow of his former self and the 43 year old really needs to hang them up rather than turning up in such an awful shape.
We try our hardest to promote the Heavyweight division in a positive light but when fighters are coming in this over-weight it's hard, even for us, to enjoy the action.