By Per Ake Persson
There were no purse bids (November 21) in Rome for Kubrat Pulev´s defence of the EBU heavyweight title against mandatory challenger Mariusz Wach of Poland.
Instead Pulev relinquished the title to concentrate on his fight December 3 in Sofia against former WBC world champion Samuel Peter. They will battle for the vacant WBA Intercontinental crown..
Wach will now face the highest available contender for the vacant EBU title.
Veteran Belorus / Spanish flyweight Valery Yanchy has announced his retirement. Yanchy fought a number of times for the EBU title and won, drew and lost always in very close fights. However, last weekend the 39-year old lost a landslide decision to Vincent Legrand and decided this is it. Yanchy leaves the game with a record of 25-5-2.
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Danish super middleweight Patrick Nielsen (28-1) returns after over a year out in January of next year writes news agency Ritzau. Nielsen beat Rudy Markussen in December of 2015 and was set to fight again in May but suffered a hand injury and has been out since. Nielsen is still ranked # 10 by the WBC and # 16 by the EBU. His sole loss came in a fight for the WBA interim title against Dmitry Chudinov.
