By Per Ake Persson
Universum has cancelled the heavyweight showdown for the vacant EBU title between Luan Krasniqi and Aleksander Dimitrenko after Dimitrenko turned down the offer to fight his stablemate. No reason is given. The fight was set for March 8 in Stuttgart.
The Burg-Wachter Castello in Duesseldorf is sold out - 4500 seats - for Saturday´s WBA heavyweight title fight between champ Ruslan Chagaev and challenger Matt Skelton.
Former WBC super middleweight titleholder Markus Beyer is now a freelancer after his contract with Sauerland Event expired December 31. A hint on where Beyer´s future comes when you look at a picture from the training camp on Mallorca with the Arena Box Promotion stable. Markus is seen in the middle with a big smile sitting next to Sinan Samil Sam.
Arena boss Ahmet Oener have made it clear in various press releases he´s not exactly happy with Juan Carlos Gomez´s behaviour of lately but still promises a $200,000 USD bonus if Gomez wins the WBC eliminator against Vladimir Virchis. Universum outbid Arena with an offer for $411,980 USD.
Ex-EBU welterweight champ Michel Trabant had his December 29 fight moved to January 26 - and now it´s off again and for a good reason. Trabant, cutprone but a very skillful boxer, takes on Andre Berto February 9 in Temecula, CA, in an HBO televised fight.
"Ugandans hope to dominate Nordic region" writes New Vision in Uganda and refers firstly to the success of Sweden-based lightweight Sam "Rocky" Rukundo, national amateur champ for Sweden but Ugandan Olympic representative. Other Ugandans here are Peter Semo, Hassan Saku and Abdu Tebazalwa, all capable fighters.
Spanish minifly veteran Rafael Lozano headlines in Cordoba February 3 with Tundra vs. Barcelo promoting.
IBF I/C jr welter champ Fedele Bellusci will now face the above mentioned Peter Semo January 25 in Rome.