Adam Kownacki might be finished as an elite fighter.
Ali Eren Demirezen, a former Olympian from Turkey, outworked Kownacki to win a unanimous decision in a 10-round heavyweight fight on the Danny Garcia-Jose Benavidez Jr. card Saturday at Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn.
The scores were 97-93, 96-94 and 96-94. Boxing Junkie scored it 97-93 for Demirezen, seven rounds to three.
Kownacki (20-3, 15 KOs) has now lost three consecutive times after being stopped by Robert Helenius in back-to-back fights.
The Polish-American controlled the first two rounds with his volume punching. However, Demirezen (17-1, 12 KOs) picked up his pace in Round 3 and outworked Kownacki the rest of the way.
Demirezen not only threw slightly more punches than Kownacki but he also landed the cleaner, eye-catching, at least to the head. Kownacki had a lot of success to the body, although not enough to slow down his opponent.
Kownacki implied before the fight that he might retire if he didn’t have his hand raised Saturday. However, after the fight, he seemed to say he doesn’t want to go out a third consecutive loss.
Meanwhile, the victory was the biggest of Demirezen’s career. The 2016 Olympian is now a step closer to realizing of his dream of becoming the first heavyweight champion from his country.
