By Per Ake Persson

Hamburg, Germany - Susianna Kentikian retained the WBA flyweight title and added the vacant WIBF belt to her collection with a hardfought unanimous decision over Nadia Hokmi from France. It was scored 97-95, 96-94 and 97-94. Hokmi protested but was overrun in the first half of the fight by the agressive champion. She did better in the later rounds and had Kentikian in trouble in the last but it wasn´t enough. 

British veteran Lee Swaby survived a first round knockdown and became the first to take hard punching German Sebastian Kober the distance in 12 fights. After six it was scored 59-54 twice and 59-55 for Kober.

Argentinian jr. welterweight Marcos Maidana, another hard puncher, had a lot of trouble with slippery Mexican Manuel Garnica but finally knocked him out with a body shot in the eighth of a scheduled ten-rounder.

Sebastian Zbik retained the WBO I/C middleweight title with a unanimous decision over Brazilian Samir Dos Santos Barbosa. It was scored 120-108 twice and 119-109. Zbik dominated but couldn´t hurt Barbosa, who in turn was too small to have an impact on Zbik.

Jr. lightweight Vitali Tajbert outclassed brave Frenchman Youssef Djibaba and stopped him in the tenth and last round with only nine seconds to go. Djibaba was under pressure but looked allright enough to be allowed to go  the full ten.

News: Luan Krasniqi and Aleksander Dimitrenko may clash in an internal Universum heavyweight eliminator on February 23, somewhere in Germany, writes the always well informed Bild Zeitung. -It´s not a done deal yet but we are talking, said Universum boss Klaus Peter Kohl. If it comes off it will be for the vacant EBU title.

Next up for WBA middle champ Felix Sturm is a voluntary defense. Both Randy Griffin and mandatory challenger Javier Castillejo will have to wait a little longer.

Cuban heavyweight prospect Odlanier Solis squares off against South African veteran Francois Botha on December 23 in Halle/Saale. In the nominal headliner German

heavyweight Steffen Kretschmann face Turhan Altunkaya for the national interim title. Meanwhile, Arena have announced that Solis´ compatriot, world ranked jr. lightweight Yuriorkis Gamboa, will train in Los Angeles with fitness coach Moritz Klatten. Klatten came to Arena from the David Haye camp and have done an exellent job this far. Just check Juan Carlos Gomez´s exellent stamina against Oliver McCall ...

There´s been around 6000 tickets sold for EBU cruiserweight champ Vincenzo Cantatore´s defense against Dane Johny Jensen December 14 at the Palalottamatic in Rome.

Dutch jr. lightweight Innocent Anyanwu have been inactive since June with every planned fight falling through for reason or another. Innocent, 10-0-1, could get a spot on the undercard to Osei Bonsu - Faradji January 12 in Antwerp, Belgium.