By Per Ake Persson
Cruiserweightss Alexander Alexeev and Denis Lebedev clash on July 17 in Schwerin in a WBO eliminator to find a mandatory challenger for WBO king Marco Huck. Both Alexeev and Lebedev are from Russia but are promoted by Universum and Frank Warren respectively. Lebedev vs Alexeev co-headlines this Universum show along with Sebastian Zbik vs Khoren Gevor.
EBU light heavyweight champ Nathan Cleverly defends the title against Frenchman Doudou Ngumbu July 10 in the UK.
EU super middleweight ruler Lolenga Mock, based in Denmark, travels to Spain for a voluntary defense against Roberto Santos on July 24. Mock´s mandatory defence against Lorenzo Di Giacomo, where purse bids had a deadline of today, is thus off for now.
-I won the fight, says Swedish lightweight Sam Rukundo on the disputed points win to Valentyn Kuts May 21 in Kiev, Ukraine. The judges were split - 115-114 twice for Kuts and 116-113 for Rukundo - in their verdict but Rukundo is sure. -I won, last time out in England against Gary Buckland it was close (Sam lost a unanimous decision) but this time I was the winner for sure. At stake was the EBA title, still rather obscure but with growing importance due to its ties to the WBA.
Big Belorus heavyweight Alexander Ustinov take on Italian veteran and former EBU champ Paolo Vidoz July 26 in Kiev.
A new book called The Fighter Still Remains, a Celebration of Boxing in Poetry and Song, is now out. It´s edited by George Kimball and John Schulian and among the writers you´ll find names like Tom Paxton, Tom Russell, Pete Hamill and Kimball himself.
The career for Croatian heavyweight Mario Preskar appears after all to be over. Preskar, who turned pro at 19 with Don King Productions in 03, collapsed in the ring last June in Kiev. It was first described as a case of heat exhaustion but there are apparently other problems as well and Preskar, 16-0-3, is most likely forced to retire.
Thomas Puetz is the new President of the BDB. A German EBU member, but these days one of around five supervising bodies on German soil. Well, almost the new President, as there was a miscalculation of the votes and a new election has to be done. If the name Puetz rings a bell yes, this is indeed the head of Puetz Security that handles the security at the Universum shows. Prior to the elections Jean Marcel Nartz and Iko Bebic withdrew their candidatures. Universum is by far the biggest and most influential member of the BDB and thus control most of the votes.
Dutch jr lightweight Innocent Anyanwu appeared to be headed for bigger things but was derailed by tough and hard punching Portugese Joao Antonio Bento on May 16 in Hilversum. The fight was even going into the tenth when Bento knocked out Innocent. Anyanwu was trained by Raymond Joval in the final weeks of training but it didn´t help.
Rinze Van der Meer has joined the WBFed as the media director. Van der Meer also writes for Boxing News, is the General Secretary of the Dutch Federation (PBN) and is also a council member of the EBU.
