05.09.06 – By Per Ake Persson: The Joszef Nagy vs Darren Rhodes fight on September 9 in Szentes (Hungary) won´t be a defence of Nagy´s EBA supermiddle title as first announced, but will be for the vacant IBF I/C title. The reason is that the British Board of Boxing Control won´t allow Rhodes to fight for the EBA title. The EBA was created in the aftermath of the conflict between the WBA and it´s WBA Int´l title and as the EBU joined WBA the EBA was left out in the cold..
EBU heavy champ Vladimir Virchis has his next fight tentatively scheduled for December. Opponent is to be announced. Mandatory challenger for Virchis is stablemate Sinan Samil Sam.
Polish Hammer Knockout Promotions tunes up for the Krzysztof Wlodarczyk vs Steve Cunningham clash for the IBF cruiser title November 25 in Warzaw with a show October 21 in Debica. On top is lightheavy Dawid Kostecki with cruiser Pawel Kolodziej and heavyweight Tomasz Bonin on the undercard.
Finnish veteran Jyrkki Vierela returns again September 16 in Kemi with a six-rounder made at welter against Latvian Denis Alekseev. Vierela, 18-4-3, began his career in 1990 and have been out since 2001. Also on the bill are heavyweight Kai Brannkarr, welter Samuli Leppiaho and lightweight Ville Piispanen. If all goes well Leppiaho and Piispanen will also be on the big Asikainen vs Sipos show in Helsinki October 6.
Heavyweight Przemyslaw Saleta is still in Florida and hopes to land a spot on the Valuev vs Barrett show October 7 in Chicago, IL.
Norwegian superbantam Reidar Walstad, now 13-1-1, stopped Estonian Sergey Tasimov in the fourth of a scheduled six-rounder September 2 in Oulu, Finland, on a Steel Ring promotion.
Retired ex-pros Paolo Roberto and Hakan Brock will do an exhibition tomorrow (Sep 5) at the Jagersro Racetrack in Malmo, Sweden. Roberto is currently busy shooting a reality TV show where upperclass brats face kids from the suburbs of Stockholm in boxing matches. Paolo´s former trainer Leif Carlsson trains one of the teams. As for Brock he operates two gyms these days and is doing well.