Setanta Sports News, the rolling 24-hour sports news service, will broadcast a special episode of Steve Bunce’s Boxing Hour at 6:30pm on Thursday 18 September. For the first time ever Joe Calzaghe and Roy Jones Junior, two of the world’s greatest boxers, will appear side by side for an exclusive interview. Straight talking boxing pundit Steve Bunce will meet Calzaghe and Jones Junior for their first UK interview ahead of their clash for the light heavyweight Ring magazine title at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday 8th November. The fight will be shown exclusively live on Setanta Sports 1..
The show’s host Steve Bunce said:
“We’ve had eight years of talks, and eight years of fights falling through. It was a natural fight to make and it remains a natural fight to make.
“There’ll be Joe on one side and Roy on the other, and somewhere in the middle we’ll get a winner.
“They’re both great talkers and they’re both great fighters. And now Setanta brings them together. Round one – ding-ding!”
European Boxing Roundup by Per Ake Persson
Polish welter Rafael Jackiewicz, 32-8-1, beat defending EBU champion Jackson Osei Bonsu, 28-2, last night in Kielce with a unanimous decision in a major upset. The judges had it 116-112, 114-113 and 117-110. It was a major setback for Jackson, who was close to a WBC eliminator or a world title fight. For Jackiewicz, who proposed to his girlfirend after the decision had been announced, it was the biggest win of his career. Jackson was expected to relinquish the title after beating Jackiewicz to concentrate on a big fight at home in Antwerp November 11 but did have his mandatory defence against Jan Zaveck scheduled for October 10 in Slovenia. That date will probably not stick but the new champion probably won´t get a long rest. Waiting for his chance is Ukrainan Vyacheslav Senchenko, whose management had expected a fight against Zaveck for the vacant title.
The fight for the vacant EBU heavyweight title between Italian Paolo Vidoz and Matt Skelton has December 16 as working date and might go ahead near Gorizia where Vidoz resides.
Instead of Riddick Bowe Hungarian heavyweight Zoltan Petranyi wound up fighting Mihaly Nemeth for the vacant national title September 12 in six. Last year in Denmark the Danish Federation nixed Petranyi-Nemeth as too weak a matchup and only allowed the two a four-round exhibition.
In Reisjarvi, Finland, September 12 jr welter Jaakko Myllyla moved to 6-0 with a second round stoppage of Frenchman Mourad Sabry El Malki.
41-year old German Mayala Mbungi have plugged away since 2003 taking on all comers at 4-6 round level fighting mainly around supermiddle and going into the bout against Steve Klockow Saturday night in Berlin he was 0-20-4. But that “0” is gone as Mayala beat Klockow.
Ex-champ, WBC, WBA and EBU, Javier Castillejo is back in training and looking to resume his career. Castillejo suffered a bad ko-loss to Sebastian Sylvester last time out in a EBU titlefight and lost his status as WBA # 1 challenger as well.