By Per Ake Persson: March 10, Hamburg, Germany: Jr welter Selcuk Aydin stopped Belorussian Vitaly Martynov in the very first round of their scheduled six-rounder that headlined Arena Box Promotion´s show in their brand new gym. Aydin floored Martynov with a mean left hook and it was all over at 1.01. Bulked up Latvian Roman Dabolins gave his all and came close but lost to much bigger Adnan Serin in a heated six-rounder..
Heavies Steffen Kretschmann and Konstantin Airich both got easy wins over inept Belorussian opponents. Kretschmann stopped Piotr Sapun while Airich tko´d Valery Meyerson.
Fight of the night was the Arena “eliminator” at lightheavy between Yawuz Keles and Ahmet Buyukbudak. Keles won when the punched out Buyukbudak was retired by his corner. These two will be rematched.
Uzbeki Johnny Ibramov, now with Arena, won over Latvian Juris Ivanovs, superlightweights.
Lots of fighters at ringside including Cubans Yan Barthelemy and Yuriorkis Gamboa, Alesia Graf, Kai Kurzawa, Alpaslan Aguzum and Mahir Oral. Herbie Hide and Aldo Colliander also attended and were fresh off six tough rounds of sparring. Aldo will next week spar with huge Belorussian Alexander Ustinov, who might face Croatian Ivica Perkovic March 24 in Hamburg. Perkovic apparently hurt Ustinov in a K 1 encounter although he lost the decision. Colliander might get a spot on the two shows March 24 – there will first be a gym show and then big event at the Sporthall in the evening.
Also coming to Hamburg for sparring and a possible contract is Czech heavy Ondrey Pala.
Prince Joachim of Denmark will be among the VIP ringside guests for Kessler vs Andrade March 24 at the Parken Arena in Copenhagen.
WBO I/C jr middle champ Lukas Konecnyy defends the title April 7 in Teplice, the Czech Republic.
The Martial Arts Delegation in Sweden will have a meeting March 14 and it´s not until then New Sweden Boxing Promotion will know for sure if they can stage their planned show March 31 in Gothenburg. No comments from New Sweden but I believe six fighters from GBA in Germany are booked. Among them are jr middle Ibrahim Barakat, who scored a bad knockout on New Sweden´s first show. Cruiser Andreas Gunther is already in Sweden to spar with Giovanni Alvarez, who is coming back after a few years off. Heavyweights Oczan Cetinkaya and Enrico Germandia might also get spots on the show.