Ekpo eyes upset against Stieglitz

Ekpo

Nigeria’s Isaac Ekpo (22-1, 16 KOs) is hoping his WBO super middleweight title fight with champion Robert Stieglitz (45-3-0, 26 KOs) will end in a surprise win in his favour in Germany.

The fight is scheduled to hold on October 19 at the Messe Halle in Leipzig, Germany.

Ekpo is ranked number seven by the WBO for the title but Stieglitz has been tipped to retain his title in front of home fans.

Ekpo, who recently had a tune-up match in Accra, Ghana, is staying back in the West African country to prepare for the all-important match.

He said, “I’m not expecting the fight to be easy in Germany. He’s the champion but I have my plans to dispossess him of the title. I’ve waited long enough for this chance and I’m not going to let it slip this time.”

Steiglitz, who is training in Slovenia for the bout, told Fightnews.com that he was prepared for the challenge.

“This is my last title defence of the year. Leipzig is a special city for me. It’s not far from Magdeburg and I have a lot of fans (there),” Steiglitz said.

“We did a preliminary analysis of the challenger Isaac Ekpo. He’s aggressive and muscular. I’ve been working a lot with my legs and speed. My teammate Jan Zaveck invited me to spend two weeks at a training camp in Ptuj, Slovenia.”

His trainer, Dirk Dzemski, added: “I’m very pleased with Robert this year especially that he came away without injury from the fight against Kiyota. Isaac Ekpo is hungry, can hit hard – this will be an exciting thing that you must take very seriously.”