By Per Ake Persson

IBF super middleweight champ Lucian Bute is almost on for a voluntatary defence against Dane Mads Larsen with date and site to be determined. No contracts are signed yet and surprisingly the final hurdle to make the fight happening appears to be Larsen.  Chris Meyer, Sauerland´s CEO, tells sporten.dk in Denmark that Bute have accepted to fight Mads but that Larsen is still asking for too much money. Meyer then says time is running out. One of the things that makes it a rush could be the purse bids January 6 for an IBF eliminator between Librado Andrade and another Sauerland fighter, Vitaly Tsypko of Ukraine. Should Larsen not accept the conditions to fight Bute it´s difficult to see Tsypko doing the same as he then avoids a dangerous eliminator and can go directly to a world title fight.

 

WBA welterweight champ Yuri Nuzhenko is in negotiations for a Ukrainian megafight against WBA I/C ruler Vyacheslav Senchenko. Nuzhenko is promoted by K 2 East in Kiev while Senchenko is backed by Union Boxing Team in Donetsk. A Nuzchenko-Senchenko fight could go ahead in Donetsk in March. Senchenko is also official challenger for EBU titleholder Rafael Jackiewicz.

 

Nadia "the Beauty Beast" Raoui´s rematch against WIBA fly queen Eileen Olzewski that was scheduled for January 24 in Riesa is off after the champion was injured in training.

 

WBO I/C welter champ Christian Bladt´s defense against Italian Sven Paris is now on again after two postponements. Bladt-Paris goes ahead January 30 in Frosinone.

 

Former WBA supermiddle challenger Dimitri Sartison continues the way back with an eight-rounder against Russian Vasily Andriyanov January 10 in Magdeburg on the undercard to Universum´s Hungarian evening at the Boerdeland Hall headlined by WBO light heavyweight king Zsolt Erdei. On the same bill Thomas Ulrich returns at cruiser and face fellow-German Armin Dollinger, who comes in fresh off of an upset stoppage of Kai Kurzawa.

 

German light heavy Juergen Braehmer was all set for an eight-rounder against Rubin Williams on January 17 in Duesseldorf less than eight weeks after challenging Hugo Hernan Garay for the WBA title in a very tough (and good) fight. Braehmer however was injured by a piece of glass New Year´s Eve in Schwerin and had to be stitched.

Russian cruiser Aleksander Alekseev, promoted by Universum, squares off against Argentinian Victor Emilio Ramirez for the WBO interim title January 17 on the Duesseldorf bill. Alekseev, 16-0 (15), is one of the brightest talents in Europe.