By Per Ake Persson
In the main event of the annual Christmas Day show in Izegem, Belgium, Ismail Abdoul, again at cruiserweight, proved to be too tricky for Jean Claude Bikoi and won on points after eight. Abdoul had a point deducted for dangerous use of the head in the sixth but by then Bikoi already had one eye swollen shut. In the co-headliner middleweight veteran Mike Algoet won an upset split decision over Frenchman Abdel Mehidi also over eight.
Great Italian manager Rocco Agostino has passed away at the age of 75. Agostino managed four - Bruno Arcari, Patricio Oliva, Mauro Galvano and Massimiliano Duran - world champions, 14 EBU champs and countless of Italian title holders.
WBO flyweight champ Omar Narvaez could be defending the title on March 10 in Le Cannet against French flyweight Brahim Asloum reports netboxe.com.
Arena Box Promotion promotes a dinner show at the Nobel-Hotel Elysee in Hamburg on February 10. Among the fighters are heavyweight Steffen Kretschmann, middleweight Alexander Sipos, formerly wth Sauerland Event, who will have his first fight for Arena, and Cuban heavyweight Pedro Carrion.
Ukrainian featherweight Stas Merdov retained the WBO I/C title on December 23 in Donetsk with a unanimous points win over Namibian Siegfried Kaperu. On the same show super middleweight Stas Kashtanov defended the WBC Youth title against one Wilberforce Shihepo and won on a cut eye stoppage. The all new European External European Union title, the EEEU, with the EBU as its main organisation, title was contested in two fights between fighters from Ukraine and the Georgian Republic. At jr welter Vladimir Kravets outscored Gari Abajian while welter Vyacheslav Senchenko won over George Ungiadze. At lightweight Andrei Kudriavtsev won on points over brave Frenchman Frederic Gosset.