Reeves Suffers 12th Round Knockout In Germany!

Baltimore, MD light heavyweight Travis "Seveer" Reeves's bid for the IBO Light Heavyweight title fell short Saturday night when he lost by 12th round TKO to Karo Murat of Kitzingen, Bayern, Germany in the main event of a card at the Inselparkhalle in Hamburg, Germany.

This is how Alexey Sukachev of Boxingscene.com described the action:

Both pugilists chose to exchange vicious, lazy yet rather powerful punches at a slow rate. It looked like Murat's power was dominant over Reeves but he also ate too many punches for him to punctuate his lead.

Reeves was determined and cautious at the same time, while Murat was inconsistent at close quarters but did well on his way out and also with his body punches. Rounds were mostly identical with both fighters rumbling it hard in a phone booth affair. Murat, meanwhile, looked dead tired but his visible fatigue didn't affect his punch rate as it was already rather low.

Murat caught his second wind in the championship rounds, while Reeves started to gas out. The American was wobbly on his legs at the conclusion of the eleventh. The twelfth started slowly as Reeves decided to turn back the heat. Murat was lethargic for the first two minutes but then exploded with a powerful right hand and a left hook. Reeves, clearly stunned, was pinned to the ropes and continued to eat leather before the referee has stepped in, maybe a bit too early.

The bout was stopped at approximately 40 seconds of the final round.  The loss breaks a 12-bout winning streak for Reeves, who was ranked eighth in the world by the IBF.  Reeves is now 15-3-2, seven KO's.  Murat, who is ranked in the top 15 by all four major governing bodies, improves to 32-3-1, 21 KOs.