By Per Ake Persson: WBA heavyweight champ David Haye and IBF middleweight ruler Sebastian Sylvester will stage a special “show training” February 22 at the main office of Kentaro in Munich, Germany. Kentaro is a major player in buying and selling TV rights and among their employees is Kalle Sauerland. As to why Haye and Sylvester will be there is an interesting question and there´s probably more to come..
It´s on: “Sugar” Jackson Osei Bonsu and Randall Bailey clash in an IBF eliminator for the # 2 spot in the welterweight ratings March 19 at the Lotto Arena in Antwerp. It´s the fifth event at the same venue with Jackson headlining and is billed as “Night of the Fight V”. It´s a matchup between two punchers and both are at a stage in their respective careers where a win is a must if they want to stay in the picture for major fights. In the chief support Seladijn Koxha and Nascimento Monteiro clash for the BeNeLux supermiddle title.
Giuseppe Langella and Antonio Lauri clash for the Italian welterweight title April 16 in Varese. OPI 2000 promotes.
Polish jr middle Damian Jonak takes on Serbian Vuk Mitic March 6 in Katowice with the vacant EBA title at stake. It´s a somewhat controversial event as Jonak will face lawsuits in both Poland and Germany for breach of contract. Jonak was previously signed Bullit Knockout and Sauerland Event. Grajewski has network PolSat behind him but the show is not sanctioned by the Polish Federation – at least not yet. Still, it´s a big show with many Polish stars on the bill such as lightheavy Andrzej Kuziemski, on loan from Spotlight Boxing, supermiddle Mateusz Masternak, signed to Ochikara Boxing Team, and lightweight veteran Matt Zegan.
Newly crowned EBU lightheavy champ Nathan Cleverly has former WBO lightheavy and WBC cruiser champ Zsolt Erdei as mandatory challenger. Deadline for agreement is May 13.