19.04.06 – By Per Ake Persson: German middle Dirk Dzemski has been forced to pull out of Saturday´s fight against EBU champ Sebastian Sylvester due to a bad case of the flu. Sylvester vs Dzemski was to have been the chief support to Klitschko vs Byrd in Mannheim. This was a voluntary defence by Sylvester. If it can be reschuled or if the champ now must must his mandatory challenger, Javier Castillejo, is up to the EBU..
Universum have arranged a court order from a regional court in Berlin against IBF heavy champ Chris Byrd. Byrd stated in an interview during the Easter weekend in Sportbild that Wladimir Klitschko´s gloves were somehow tampered (as in covered by some illegal stuff) with when they fought back in 2000 – a fight that Byrd, down twice, lost on a wide margin, and finished with bad bruises around both eyes. The court order is for Byrd to stop claiming that there was something wrong with the gloves. And it seems like it worked: media reports indicate a very quiet, although crowded, press conference in Heidelberg yesterday and that Byrd refused to answer some questions.
“Tampered gloves” at some fights involving Universum (Klitschko was back in 2000 with Universum but is now with K 2/Sportfive) is a long standing rumor that first went public early 99. Nothing has ever been proved though and Universum strongly denies any wrongdoing. In the the first Klitscko vs Byrd fight Chris started well but quickly found himself on the wrong end of Wladimir´s pawing jab.
WBO jr middle champ Sergey Dzindziruk is suffering from a bad cold and his defence against Argentinian Sebastian Lujan is postponed from April 29 until Munich May 27. The April 29 show goes ahead as planned and is topped by Luan Krasniqi vs David Bostice with Alesia Graf in a WIBF superbantam fight and WBA I/C 140 lb champ Andreas Kotelnik defends the title. Opponents for Graf and Kotelnik haven´t been announced yet. With Dzindziruk vs Lujan added to the May 27 show Universum have quite a line up for that bill with Mario Veit vs Jurgen Brahmer and Stipe Drews vs Kai Kurzawa in co-headliners.
WBA 168 lb champ Mikkel Kessler´s next defence is in the works for late May or early June. As for opponent William Joppy is out of the picture and according to Mogens Palle, matchmaker for Team Palle, it won´t be newly crowned EBU champ Mger Mkrtchian either. As for mandatory challenger the WBA first had Jackson Chanet vs Vitaly Tsypko as eliminator, a fight won by Chanet but after the Frenchman´s promoter Michel Acaries stated his man needed more experience the WBA ordered Anthony Mundine vs Danny Green as eliminator.
Lightheavy Kai Kurzawa will not be on the Klitschko vs Byrd bill April 22 as planned but will concentrate on his upcoming EBU titlefight against Stipe Drews. Kurzawa was to have fought Enad Licina, who´s been sparring with Markus Beyer and Arthur Abraham.
Ukrainian National Boxing Promotions have their next show planned for June 10.
Belgian cruiser Ismael Abdoul have trained hard for the April 23 showdown in Gent for the vacant EU title against Dutchman Don Diego Poeder despite an upcoming courtcase. Abdoul, who have his best weight at 175, have among others sparred with heavyweight Oleg Platov, who takes on Brit Colin Kenna, on the Byrd vs Klitschko bill.
German cruiser Marco Huck is next scheduled to fight on the Valuev vs Beck bill June 3 in Hannover.
Ex-WBA bantam champ Johnny Bredahl´s next fight won´t be until September partly due to a hand injury.