By Per Ake Persson: March 6, Cuxhaven, Germany: WBC Int´l welter champ Selcuk Aydin retained the title in style stopping Luis Hernandez from Ecuador at 2.30 of the first round scoring two knockdowns. Hernandez, who had arrived to Germany only on the morning of the fight, never got untracked. Aydin, now trained by Graciano Rocchigiani, is now 17-0 with 14 early endings..
Czech heavy Ondrey Pala won a majority ten round decision over stablemate Konstantin Airich in a fight that was also an internal eliminator. Pala dominated and looked like a clear winner. It was scored 99-92 , 96-94 and 95-95.
Cruiser Herbie Hide got a solid workout from Sandro Siprishvili but won clearly on scores of 80-72 twice and 79-73. Hide´s WBC eliminator against Matt Godfrey might go ahead either May 8 or 15 with Saarbruecken as possible site.
Croatian cruiser Ivica Bacurin won a close call over German Timo Gross in another Arena internal eliminator over six tough rounds. It was scored 58-56 twice and 58-57. Bacurin had semi-retired former lightheavy champ Stipe Drews in his corner. Word is that Stipe will come back in the near future.
In his final sparring session heavyweight Steffen Kretschmann suffered a busted eardrum which led to the cancellation of his fight against Denis Bahktov.
Supervisor for WBC Int´l Mauro Betti got sick on the day of the show and couldn´t attend.
Former WBC supermiddle champ Markus Beyer was ringside but his future in the ring is still up in the air due to the bad back injury he suffers from.
Also at ringside were EBU middle champ Khoren Gevor and bright prospect at the same weight Gennadyi Golovkin.
It´s almost official: Universum holds a press conference March 9 to announce the show in Bremen May 2 featuring WIBF and WBC feather champ Ina Menzer as well as WBA mandatory bantam challenger Wladimir Sidorenko and cruiser Aleksander Alekseev.
Professional boxing meets rock´n roll June 6 in Tidaholm, Sweden, when Labbas Box Promotion stage a show headlined by heavyweight Roddy Benjaminsson, who is likely to take on Anders Holmberg, who´s more known as promoter with Pugnus. Jr middle Kamran Kabinejad and cruiser Halid Ranica, from Bosnia but now based in Sweden, are also on the bill. The rock´n roll part is taken care of by Snakebite, a rockabilly act from Arvika.