By Per Ake Persson: The dispute between WBA supermiddle champ Mikkel Kessler and Team Palle is a big story in Denmark. Kessler claims in one interview that the dual role of manager and promoter is to blame for the situation. Mogens Palle states to one paper that he feels the situation will be worked out and also – surprisingly – says that his goal was to make an all-Danish showdown between Kessler and Mads Larsen, a fight that could have been huge a few years ago but now appears to have lost much of its attraction given how much Larsen has slipped.. Both Kessler and Palle have previously said no to Larsen, who´s promoted by Sauerland Event, who now turned a fight agaist Kessler down and worked on having Lucian Bute defending the IBF title against Larsen.
Sauerland Event´s chief coach, Ulli Wegner, tells Bild Zeitung he´s very unhappy with the shape of cruiser Alexander Frenkel and heavyweight Francesco Pianeta. Both had been given an individual training program over Christmas but returned to the gym several kilos too heavy.
IBF middle champ Arthur Abraham´s next defence goes – as previously reported – ahead March 14 with Kiel as site. Sauerland Event´s First Lady Cecilia Braekhus will go for her first title on the show, possibly against Sweden´s Anna Ingman in a supporting bout.
The Martial Arts Delegation in Sweden, as expected, turned down a request from the Swedish Federation for a special permission to have pro fights with a longer scheduled distance than the current 12 minutes. MAD sites the Martial Arts Law which also regulates pro boxing and it´s pretty clear that the special Swedish rules are here to stay. The fact that Swedish Federation argued that pro boxing is less dangerous than amateur boxing probably didn´t help either.
Osman Aktas defends the national featherweight title against Guillaume Frenois in the chief support to Cristobal Cruz´s defence of the IBF 126 lb title against Cyril Thomas February 16 in St Quentin, France. Also on the bill is South African jr welter Philippe Ndou, jr middle Demetrius Andrade and lightheavy Michael Sweeney. The show is promoted by R 2 Image & Events, Sports Evenements, Banner Promotions and Golden Gloves – four promotional outfits from four different countries.
Italian OPI 2000 have won purse bids to stage Giacobbe Fragomeni´s defence of the WBC cruiser crown against Pole Krzystof Wlodarczyk and will stage the fight March 28 in Rome or Milan. OPI 2000 also won the purse bids for Adrian Diaconu vs Silvio Branco, a WBC fight at lightheavy. Date and site is to be announced.
The Spanish Federation protested to the EBU about the appointment of Devis Boschiero as mandatory challenger for jr light champ Sergey Gulyakevich. The EBU responded and removed Boschiero as OC, re-installed him as EU ruler and Leva Kirakosian, fighting with a Spanish license, is now Gulyakevich´s mandatory challenger. Kirakosian fights next in Vigo January 16 on the undercard to Pozo vs Rodriguez for the EBU flyweight title.