By Per Ake Persson: I always wondered how Sweden entered the discussions as site for the Carl Froch vs Arthur Abraham fight and it seems like it´s all due to a misunderstanding. Sweden still does not allow professional boxing in full and Helsinki is not its Capital. Froch vs Abraham will go ahead sometime in September with WBO cruiser king Marco Huck filling in on the original date August 18 with a defence of the title in Erfurt..
What is next for former WBA champ Nikolay Valuev? The WBC eliminator against Odlanier Solis appears to be a no go for Valuev who wants either Vitali Klitschko or a rematch against David Haye. Meanwhile, Arena wants to do Solis vs Valuev in Germany with Sat 1 as network partner.
Lucian Bute´s planned defence of the IBF supermiddle title July 24 in Bucharest is now off and Bute will now take on mandatory challenger Jessy Brinkley sometime in the fall.
Wladmir Klitschko´s defence of the IBF title against Alexander Povetkin will go ahead September 11 in Frankfurt / Main, Germany if K 2 get it the way they want it. Sauerland Event wants to stage the fight in Moscow.
Bjoern Jensen writes in the latest issue of German tradepaper BoxSport an initiated article on the future of Universum. If no major TV deal is struck it appears that a much slimmer company will emerge after July 31 headed by Dietmar Poszwa with founder Klaus Peter Kohl heading for retirement. As for the fighters there´s been a number of eliminators recently but Universum even in its slimmer version stands strong with Juergen Braehmer, Sebastian Zbik, Dimitri Sartison, Vitali Tajbert, Rene Maidana, Ina Menzer and Susi Kentikian as reigning champs and with Jack Culcay, Dennis Boytsov, Rachim Chakiev, Alexander Alexeev, Karoly Balzsay, Zsolt Bedak and Pal Bedak as men for the future. Guys like Ruslan Chagaev, Alexander Dimitrenko and Manuel Charr are at the crossroads while oldtimers like Luan Krasniqi, Firat Arslan and Zsolt Erdei are described as fighters with no future in Universum.
More from BoxSport: WBA supermiddle champ Felix Sturm has opened his big gym in Cologne and plans to comeback September 4 with Ricardo Mayorga as the possible opponent. However, Sturm is still fighting Universum in German courts in a contractual dispute.