Photo by D.Hiller: (Oliver McCall at the East Side Gallery in Berlin. McCall is training for the Gomez fight at the Wiking Box Gym) Today arena-CEO Ahmet Öner celebrated his 36th birthday. His office team gave him a cake in the looks of a championship belt as a present. In one week his boxers want to follow up by presenting their promoter real gold at arena’s “Champion’s Night” in Berlin. Former European Champion Sinan Samil Sam wants to clear his name from the loss he suffered on June 16th in his hometown Ankara by beating Croatia’s Ivica Perkovic in a WBC Mediterranean Championship bout..
In his second fight after ascending from welter- to middleweight Alpaslan Agüzüm gets a shot at the WBC International Championship against Italian “Volcano” Domenico Spada. Alpaslan replaces stall-mate Mahir “Lion” Oral who broke his right hand while preparing for his re-match with Spada.
The vacant WBC Light-Heavyweight International Championship will be fought out between Italy’s Silvio Branco and Peter Venancio from Brazil.
In the main event Juan Carlos Gomez challenges WBC Heavyweight International Champion Oliver McCall. Two years ago “The Black Panther” beat “The Atomic Bull” on points but tested positive on cocaine after the fight. Now both men have something to make up for. McCall who arrived in Berlin last Monday said he felt no respect for cheaters and he would beat Gomez clearly. Gomez’ answer: “McCall should stop talking bull and start fighting like one. I beat him once and I will definitely beat him again!” If Gomez is true to his word his delayed birthday present for his promoter could be a World Championship bout. The winner of the match between No. 2 rated McCall and No. 4 rated Gomez is likely to become the next mandatory challenger for the World title after Sam Peter, Oleg Maskaev and Vitaly Klitschko have sorted out who will be the man to beat.
This Saturday Gomez faces a slightly different challenge. The Cuban is part of a jury to choose “Miss VENUS” who will be one of the ring girls of the big fight.
Also on the card for arena’s show on October 19th in Berlin’s Estrel Convention Center are Olympic gold medallist Odlanier Solis and hopeful German heavyweight prospects Steffen Kretschmann and Konstantin Airich. Tickets are available via www.ticketonline.com, www.eventim.de or Ticket-Hotline: +49 (0)30 – 6831 6831.