Per Ake Persson: German Arena Box Promotion are planning 7-8 shows in Germany and two in Turkey during 2008. Meanwhile, Cuban jr lightweight prospect Yuriorkis Gamboa will continue to campaign in the US and have fights scheduled February 8 and 22. Heavies Odlanier Solis and Sinan Samil Sam along middleweight Mustafa Karagol are all three scheduled to appear in Italy February 29. There are two very important eliminators coming up for Arena fighters; for the WBC # 1 spot heavyweight Juan Carlos Gomez clash against Vladimir Virchis and Mahir Oral is in against Fulgencio Zuniga in a IBF eliminator.. The team as whole is currenly on the Spanish resort island Mallorca on training camp.
Professional boxing in Sweden: Pugnus Box Promotion is planning to do a show in Gothenburg March 29 while Pro Box Scandinavia are working on a promotion in either Gavle or Stockholm in February. No names have been announced. There was a meeting with all licensed promoters in Orebro this past weekend. All agreed that we need to work by same rules as the rest of the world if proboxing here is to survive. However, the general permission the Swedish probox commission is working with calls for a max distance of 12 minutes and that is likely to remain through 2008.
Sahnoune to jail: Former WBA lightheavy champ Mehdi Sahnoune, 31-2, has been sentenced to three years in jail and a fine of 2500 Euro for his part in an assault that took place back in 2002. Sahnoune says he´s innocent and will appeal. Mehdi has been out of the ring since 2005. He held the WBA title in 2003, won it against Bruno Girard but lost Silvio Branco. July 3, 2005, he was scheduled to challenge WBO ruler Zsolt Erdei only to see the fight getting cancelled the same day due to the champion getting sick. In October 2005 he fought Erdei but got stopped in the final round.
Bidenko vs Salif: WBA heavy champ Taras Bidenko defends the title against Cisse Salif, who spent a large part of 2007 in Germany as sparring for Arena´s heavyweights.