By Per Ake Persson: February 9, Hamburg, Germany: All fighters made weight for tomorrow´s two Arena promotions. The first show, at noon, takes place at the Arena gym and is headlined by heavyweight Goran Gogic, 113,5 kg / 249,75 lbs. Gogic takes on Czech Ladislav Kovarik, 112,3 kg / 247 lbs. Alexander Sipos, formerly with Sauerland Event, makes his debut for Arena and came in at 72,6 / 159,75. His opponent, Samson Oludayo, fighting out of Berlin, weighed in at 72,8 / 160,75. There will be four fights on the gym show..
In the evening a big dinner show with nine fights takes place at the Elysee Hotel with Juan Carlos Gomez, a trim 102,7 / 226, on top in a WBC Latin title fight. His opponent, late sub Adenilson Rodriguez from Brazil looked out of shape at 116,7 / 256,75. Kai Kurzawa, now with Elite, scaled 79,2 / 174,25, face Riccardo Grassmann, 79,8 / 175,5. Belarussian Alexander Ustinov, 133,0 / 292,5, takes on Emgrin Solmaz, 118,5 / 260,75. This is the very same Solmaz who retired himself with a claimed arm injury January 27 in Sweden against Joey Abell and was also floored in that fight. Russian Sergey Sorokin, who´s one to watch, debutes for Arena and takes on Kenyan Michael Moya in a scheduled ten-rounder. Both weighed 63,5 / 139,75.
WBC Int´l heavy champ Sinan Samil Sam will defend the title June 16 in Istanbul and promotor Ahmet Oener, who heads Arena, says the opponent will be from the top ten. Juan Carlos Gomez will co-headline this show that was originally scheduled for May.
Universum have been forced to cancel their planned show in Oberhausen February 24 as both main event fighters are out. Lightheavy Stipe Drews is down with fever and supermiddle Jurgen Brahmer suffered a shoulder injury in sparring.
WBC Youth champ at jr middle Zapir Gereev and Dutch heavy Harry Duiven, Jr, will both be on the undercard to Klitschko vs Austin March 10 in Mannheim.
Sauerland Event´s show in Rostock March 3 will go ahead with Alejandro Berrio vs Robert Stieglitz for the vacant IBF lightheavy title as headliner and heavies Timo Hoffmann and Alexander Povetkin in featured bouts. Middleweight Sebastian Sylvester, who was to have challenged EBU ruler Amin Asikainen is still on the show.
Chris Meyer, CEO for Sauerland Event, says they see a future in Denmark for promotions and are looking for Scandinavian talents. Sauerland Event just signed up Danish supermiddle Mads Larsen.
Slovenian welter Jan Zaveck and Frenchman Nicolas Guisset fight for the vacant EU title in the chief support to Ragosina vs Hernandez February 17 in Magdeburg.
Chinese female bantam Zhang Xiyan is now training in Valence, France, under Nicolas Riffard as part of her preparation for a titlefight in China in April. There a number of other quality pros coming into Valence for training during the spring such as EBU lightheavy contender Yuri Barashyan, EBU lightweight champ Yuri Romanov and lightweight Tontcho Tontchev.
Joao Bento and Leva Kirakosyan clash for the vacant EBU jr light title March 10 in Vilamoura, Portugal.
Norwegian jr welter Geir Inge Jorgensen will headline a show in Torrevieja, Spain, March 9.
Hammer Knockout have moved their scheduled show in Radom February 10 to February 24 due to illness. Cruiser Pawel Kolodziej, the WBC Youth champ, headlines. The planned February 24 promotion in Glokow is postponed until March.
Debuting Danish female jr welter Vinnie Skovgaard face Croatian Ksenija Koprek on the undercard to Abazi vs Guerrero February 23 in Copenhagen. Koprek just lost a hard fought decision to touted Norwegian Cecilia Braekhus.
New Sweden Boxing Promotion have applied for a show March 31 in Gothenburg under the same rules as their first show (Jan 27). The Martial Arts Delegation will probably make their report from that show public tomorrow (Feb 9) and that will be a good guideline for the future for professional boxing in Sweden.