By Per Ake Persson

Jonkoping, Sweden - Professional boxing returned this afternoon to this city, known as the capital of the Swedish biblebelt, for the first time in 50 years. Back then middleweight Bosse Pettersson outscored Fabio Bettini over ten.

Tonight at a packed Harry´s Nightclub, super middleweight and local man Sandor Lauritsen, 3-0, outscored durable Serbian Mladen Obradovic, 0-2-1, over for. It was scored 40-36 on all cards and Obradovic proved to be a tough customer and Lauritsen was unable to hurt him.

French welterweight Bernard Follea, 7-5-1, knocked out Daniel Hartvig, 10-1-1, 1.42 into the sixth and final round. Hartvig, a fighter´s fighter, was too one-dimensional in his boxing for the tall, slick boxing Frenchman and soaked up a bad beating along the way and was down in the fourth as well.

Welterweight prospect Mohammed Saleh, 7-0, knocked out Georgian Nika Nalikashvili, 1.09 into the third. Nalikashvili was down twice in the second.

Light heavy Robin Safar, 2-0, took apart Serbian Vukasin Obradovic and won on third round TKO and female super lightweight Patricia Berghult, 8-0, won a hardfought six-rounder over Aleksandra Vujovic.

News: Rene Monse has passed away at the age of 48 after what his former promoter SES described as a lengthy illness. Monse was a good amateur, turned pro late and went 14-2 from 1991 through 2004 and fought twice for the EBU title losing both times to Luan Krasniqi but the first was a minor classic with Krasniqi edging it on a close majority decision. Monse retired after the second fight in the 2004.

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On June 2 Mogens Palle and Brian Nielsen Promotion announced that super middleweight Jonas Madsen would fight Russian Egor Bakulin for the vacant IBF Youth title June 17 in Aarhus (Denmark). On June 3 Bakulin broke the contract and fought Gasan Gasanov and was stopped in one and thus the fight in Denmark was off. Madsen will now face Mexican Mario Baeza, 8-3.
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Former WBA cruiser king Firat Arslan, closing in on 46, headlines a show in Goeppingen, Germany, July 15. Opponent is to be announced but the WBO Euro title is at stake. In the chief support Fatih Keles, 9-0, defends the WBO Euro title and heavyweight prospect Ali Eren Demirezen, 5-0, is featured on the undercard.