By Per Ake Persson

Alexander Frenkel's defense of the EBU cruiserweight title against Silvio Branco, that first was postponed and then set for July 22 in Civitavecchia, Italy, is now off completely. The EBU has subsequently removed the 44-year old Branco from the mandatory challenger position. OPI 2000, who promote Branco, confirms the fight is off but declined to give any reason for the cancellation.

However, Branco, a multiple world and European champ, is fighting a tuneup this coming weekend along with former WBC cruiserweight king Giacobbe Fragomeni and OPI 2000 plans to stage a fight between these two veterans in the fall - which financially is a much bigger fight for the Italian market, says Christian Cherchi.

As for Frenkel he´s wasted a long time training for a fight that was first postponed and then cancelled.