17.03.05 – Joe Calzaghe will defend his WBO super middleweight title on May 7 in Germany against Universum promoted interim champion Mario Veit, 45-1 (23). For this reason Calzaghe, 38-0 (30), canceled his upcoming title defense that was scheduled for Friday, March 18, in Belfast. By doing so he acted according to the rules of the World Boxing Organization.. After Universum Box-Promotion won the purse bids for the Calzaghe-Veit contest the Welchman had no permission to make another voluntary defense that close to the scheduled May 7th mandatory defense against interim champ Veit.
“It looks like Joe will have to pay Germany a visit”, Mario Veit said highly satisfied. “Clearly he couldn’t avoid the rematch against me forever. I earned the right to challenge him one more time. I can’t stay interim champion for years.”
Veit already did challenge Calzaghe before – on April 28, 2001 in Wales. He entered the ring under poor circumstances, badly prepared and froze in the very first round when he got hit by Calzaghe’s first shots.
During the past four years Veit became father of a son and won 15 fights straight since facing Calzaghe. Last year he captured the WBO interim title with a split decision over awkward Egyptian Kabary Salem and defended it with an impressive technical knockout in round 9 over former world champion Charles Brewer.
“This was the strongest Mario Veit we have ever seen”, coach Fritz Sdunek said. “This time Calzaghe will face a much different Mario than he did four years ago.”
“It was smart from Calzaghe to keep within the rules”, promoter Klaus-Peter Kohl said. “By doing so he also proved that he can earn more money in Germany. We are looking forward to this fight very much. After all his successful title defenses the undefeated Calzaghe is still the best world champion at super middleweight.”
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