After a two-year odyssey through the waters of the boxing business, German professional boxer Noel Mikaelian is once again cruiserweight world champion. In Los Angeles, he takes revenge for a controversial defeat and puts himself in position for big fights.
Noel Mikaelian has won the WBC cruiserweight title for the second time in his career. The 35-year-old defeated defending champion Badou Jack unanimously on points over twelve rounds in Los Angeles (115:111, 116:110, 116:110).
Mikaelian took revenge for an extremely controversial point defeat he suffered against Jack in Riyadh in May. Although the man from Hamburg with Armenian roots scored 30 more hits and hit almost 300 times more, two judges voted for the Swede Jack.
Mikaelian’s team then filed a protest with the WBC and obtained an immediate rematch.
There was no doubt about the German’s points victory this time. Once again, Mikaelian was more active than the 42-year-old Swede and scored more goals. “No excuses, he was the better guy tonight,” admitted the dethroned Jack (also once super middleweight and light heavyweight world champion).
Both boxers received a point deduction: Mikaelian in round seven for hitting the back of the head, Jack for a punch during a separation command from the referee in the eighth round.
Boxing: Unification showdown between Opetaia and Mikaelian?
Mikaelian celebrated his 28th victory in his 31st professional fight. By the end of 2023, he had already conquered the WBC belt in the limit of 90.72 kilograms and was the first German to win a world championship fight in the USA since Max Schmeling in 1930.
However, Mikaelian never defended the title: a feud with his promoter Don King gave him a hard time in 2024, and at the end of the previous year the WBC took the title away from him in a dubious landlord-style process and installed Jack as world champion.
In May, Mikaelian unexpectedly got the chance to challenge Jack in Riyadh because his challenger was injured. Despite a mini-preparation of two and a half weeks, he largely dominated the fight – and once again controversially lost on points in his career.
With the revenge victory, Mikaelian has now put himself in a promising position for big fights in the cruiserweight division. The camp of IBF champion Jai Opetaia had already called for a unification showdown against the future WBC champion before the evening of the fight in Los Angeles.
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Opetaia is considered number 1 in the cruiser class, the Australian badly knocked out Hüseyin Cinkara from Speyer last weekend
After Mikaelian’s World Cup triumph in Los Angeles, there are now two German boxing world champions: Abass Baraou from Oberhausen is the WBA light middleweight champion. Agit Kabayel is also the interim WBC heavyweight world champion.