By Per Ake Persson
French-Iranian Mahyar Monshipour lost the WBA 122 lb title to Thai Somsak Sitchatchawal on a tenth round tko last night in Levallois. Monshipour was down in the first but came back and was ahead on points after nine in what French media describes as a war, the toughest fight in France for decades, with both men staggered numerous times Sitchatchawal was however the stronger and hurt Monshipour in the sixth and finally in the tenth forcing British referee John Coyle to stop the fight.
Miriam Lamare retained the WBA female jr welterweight title with a ten round points win over Belinda Laracuente in the chief support. Veteran Alban Mothie won the French jr middle title with a points win over Woilid Guarras.
In Monte Carlo Roman Greenberg stopped Russian Alex Vassiliev in the fourth to win the vacant IBO I/C heavyweight title. Greenberg was taking over the fight when a hard right opened a bad cut over Vassiliev´s left eye and the fight was stopped. On the undercard jr middle Christophe Canclaux impressed with a points win over Geard Ajetovic over eight.
British welterweight, licensed with BBBofC, Ashley Theopane took out Josef Holub with a left hook in the third in Horka, Germany, Friday (March 17) night on a GBA supervised show. In the mainevent jr welter Rene Mahling stopped one Mahmsum Ece to become a triple youth champ with the GBC, EBF and WBE. Check out Andy Meyer´s andworldboxing.com for more info on these sanctioning bodies.
The Johnny Bredahl vs Alexander Fedorov bantamweight clash in Copenhagen on March 30 will now also be for the vacant WBA I/C title. It was previously "only" for the WBO I/C belt. Bredahl might, if all goes according to plan, next challenge EBU ruler Simone Maludrottu and then go for WBA king Wladimir Sidorenko.
Polish cruiserweight Krzysztof "Diablo" Wlodarczyk takes on American Imamu Mayfield in Siedlce on March 25. It´s rumored that Wlodarczyk could challenge WBA cruiserweight champ Virgil Hill in June in Poland. Wlodarczyk, 34-1, is # 3 with the WBC, # 3 with IBF, # 10 with the WBO and # 9 with the WBA. His only loss came in Germany against Pavel Melkomian and was on a controversial technical decision.
Spotlight Boxing promotes in Prague on May 9 with Russian cruiserweight Grigorz Drozd and Czech jr middleweight Lukas Konecny on top.
Israeli female super flyweight Hagar Shmoulefeld takes on Bulgarian Svetla Taskova on March 25 in Tel Aviv for the WIBF I/C and WIBA European titles. There are about 15 active pros in Israel at the moment. Jr welterweight Elad Shmouel, who appears in the chief support, is the most acclompished.
Norwegians Nikita Dubunin and Andreas Evensen will both fight on the SES show in Oranienburg (just outside of Berlin) on March 25 against Polish opponents. Dubunin, a jr middle, takes on Sebastian Wywalec while Evensen, a jr light making his prodebut, faces Damien Lawniczak. Local jr middleweight Marco Schulze headlines against Costa Rican Humberto Aranda.
Austrian promoter and manager Peter Popischal is in custody in Vienna for the past three weeks in a drugs related case that seems to be pretty serious. Popischal, sínce a year or so ago worked mainly with the EBF.
