By Per Ake Persson
Heavyweights Ruslan Chagaev and John Ruiz clash in a WBA eliminator on October 28 at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart on Universum´s big "Champions Night" show. Already announced is Alexander Dimitrenko´s defense of the WBO I/C crown and Firat Arslan vs Grigory Drozd in a WBO I/C fight at cruiserweight. All in all ten fights are planned for the show - all at cruiser or heavyweight.
Swiss welterweight Riad Menasria moved to 26-0-1 with a close, majority win over unheralded Estonian Albert Starikov on Friday night in Berne. Menasria has been around for ten years now without getting the big fights. The plan is now to have Riad fight an EBU ranked challenger on December 26 in Bern.
EBU flyweight king Andrea Sarritzu defends the title on October 8 in Milano against Frenchman Christophe Rodriguez as a co-feature to Frederik Klose´s defense of the EBU 147 lb belt against veteran Giovanni Parisi.
Belgian heavyweight Oleg Platov will now tuneup for his IBF I/C fight on November 4 in Muhlheim, and Ruhr vs Henry Akinwande on Hako Sevecke´s annual charity show in Hattersheim on September 23. The plan was to have Platov take on Swedish heavyweight Aldo Colliander on the Abraham vs Miranda show in Wetzlar on the same night but that fell through.
Cruiserweight Marco Huck takes on Frenchman Rachid El Hadak on the Abraham vs Miranda bill. Huck have sparred a lot with the above mentioned Colliander and I have been told it got pretty heated. Should Marco get through El Hadak he will face Italian Pietro Aurino on November 4 for the vacant EU title.
Hungarian sources indicate that this may be it for former WBF and IBO jr. middleweight champ Mihaly Kotai, who suffered two consecutive losses to Brit Steve Conway.
Sauerland Event will reportedly have super middleweight Danilo Haussler and heavyweight Francesco Pianeta join Markus Beyer at Parken in Copenhagen on the huge Beyer vs Kessler show. Canadian Interbox will probably bring in Lucien Bute, also at 168.
