By Per Ake Persson: I was probably not the only one wondering why Sauerland Event signed up Lamon Brewster, who looked very poor against Wladimir Klitschko in 2007, and had only one fight since. The reason seems to be that Brewster came to the Sauerland camp as a sparring partner and looked so good that he got a promotional deal. Brewster will face Michael Sprott on Saturday in Kiel. Sprott was to have challenged EU champ Francesco Pianeta April 4 in Duesseldorf but that is off now. Pianeta will instead defend the title against Pole Albert Sosnowski, who beat Danny Williams in his last fight..
Italian heavy Paolo Vidoz stopped overmatched Czech Tomas Zepzralka March 7 in Gorizia in what was to be a farewell fight but Paolo himself is not so certain it was the end.
The Palle – Kessler contractual dispute received a lot of attention in Danish media. Kessler seems to feel he is free to fight elsewhere while still under contract with another promoter and appears to head for a rude awakening in that regard. Kessler argues that one of the three options Palle claims was used against Danilo Haussler, a mandatory defence by the WBA champ, the second went up in smoke when talks of a showdown against Mads Larsen broke through leaving Palle with one option that according to Kessler should be used against WBA mandatory challenger Gusmyl Perdomo. Right or wrong seems to be up to a Danish court to decide as the tone between the parties involved is not very friendly and mainly takes place in media or through lawyers.
Ukrainian middle Avantandil Khurtsidze defends the WBA I/C title against Hungarian Attila Kovacs March 28 in Cherkasy. The show is promoted by K 2 East and is billed as “Tornado 2”.
“Mission: Possible” reads the press releases in regards of Juan Carlos Gomez´s fight against WBC heavy champ Vitali Klitschko and I believe them. Klitschko has a big advantage in physique, punch and reach but Gomez have the skills to outbox and outhustle his bigger opponent.
There are already 3500 tickets sold for Felix Sturm´s defence against Koji Sato April 25 in Krefeld. WBO supermiddle champ Karoly Balzsay appear in the co-feature but Universum has yet to announce against who. Middleweight prospect Gennadyi Golovkin face unbeaten American Tarvis Simms on the undercard that also feature heavyweight Markus Tomala.
European Boxing Roundup: Kessler, Huck, Alekseev, Dimitrenko
09.03.09 – By Per Ake Persson: WBA supermiddle champ Mikkel Kessler and Team Palle are now in an open conflict and it might end up in Danish court. According to a press release from Team Palle´s lawyers A 4 the reason for the dispute are the options International Entertainment – the company under which Mogens Palle operates – have on Kessler´s next three fights. Kessler´s lawyers have written Team Palle that as of February of 2009 there was only one option left and that should be used in a fight against WBA mandatory challenger Gusmyl Perdomo. It´s been previously assumed that the options don´t include mandatory defences. International Entertainment writes that with this in mind is no point trying to make fights or shows with Kessler and will take the case to the court.
Former WBC supermiddle champ Markus Beyer appears on the book convention in Leipzig March 14 to introduce a biography on his life called “Mit Links und 40 Fieber”. It´s ghost written by Monty Grassler. It´s likely that the back injury Beyer suffers from will end his career although no official announcement has been made.
Sauerland Event won purse bids with an offer for 540 000 EUR for EBU cruiser champ Marco Huck´s defence against former WBA ruler Firat Arslan. Sauerland will put the fight on sometime in May. Arslan is promoted Spotlight Boxing so this will be an all-German showdown in more than one way.
Russian cruiser Aleksander Alekseev, who surprisingly lost to Victor Ramirez last time out, comes back May 2 in Dresden to face American Max Alexander. The show is headlined by WIBF and WBC champ Ina Menzer who fights Franchesca Alcanter. In the co-feature WBA bantam king Anselmo Miranda again squares off against Ukrainian Wladimir Sidorenko.
Aleksander Dimitrenko now has Alexander Povetkin as co-challenger for the vacant EBU heavyweight title. It´s a hot matchup but unfortunately not one that is likely to happen – at least not now as Povetkin awaits a shot at IBF and WBO champ Wladimir Klitschko. The EBU have set April 21 as deadline for agreements and purse bids.
French welter Brice Faradji is off the fight against Italian Leonard Bundu March 13 in Firenze. Faradji is replaced another Frenchman in Franck Harroche Horta.
EBU supermiddle champ Karo Murat has Dmitri Sartison as official challenger. Deadline for agreements are May 28. This is another Sauerland Event vs Spotlight Boxing fight as well and both are highly ranked by the WBA.
Natascha Ragosina defends her WIBF, GBU and WBC supermiddle titles against Iva Weston from Trinidad & Tobago March 28 in Grossziethen. Lukas Konecny and Jimmy Colas clash for the EU jr middle title in the co-feature.
Hungarian website monokli.com writes that WBO supermiddle ruler Karoly Balzsay faces former WBA middleweight titlist Maselino Masoe April 25 in Krefeld.
Gambling on boxing have always been a risky business for all involved. Now, Nordic online gambling company PAF is making a concentrated effort on boxing and not just the big fights but even fights on small hall shows in Finland should be possible to gamble on. Check out paf.com for more info.