Romanian boxer fights his way to world heavyweight champion title

Romanian heavyweight boxer Mihai Nistor won the AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) world champion title on Tuesday, September 22. He beat the title holder, German Erik Pfeifer, in a boxing gala in Hamburg. The Romanian won the match by technical KO in the ninth round. He will get a EUR 45,000 prize for his win. Nistor is the first Romanian heavyweight boxer that becomes world champion. He thus joins Romanian boxers Mihai Leu, Leonard Doroftei, Adrian Diaconu, and Lucian Bute, who have also won world champion titles in lighter categories, in the past 25 years. Mihai Nistor, 25, got the bronze medal at the European Boxing Championships in Smokov (Bulgaria), in August this year. He competes in the super-heavyweight category (91+ kilograms). Earlier this year, he also qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, the first Olympics that allow professional boxers to compete. The only way pro boxers can qualify for the Olympic Games in 2016 is the APB competition AIBA Pro Boxing is the professional boxing arm of the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA). It is a young pro boxing organization and not as well known as the WBO, WBC, WBA, or IBF. editor@romania-insider.com