By Per Ake Persson
Frenchman Jackson Chanet, the defending EBU 168 lb champion and WBA number one contender, was ahead by six points on two cards and one point on the third going into the eleventh of his fight against the hardpunching Mger Mkrtchian on Friday night in Reims when he got caught. Chanet was down and out for a long time, but made full recovery. Jackson promises to be back though. He fought as a heavyweight in the Athens Olympics in 2000, but came in at only 164 lbs for this fight.
Neither Wladimir Klitschko nor Chris Byrd with their respective teams have been able to find hotel rooms in Mannheim where they fight on April 22, both teams are staying in nearby Heidelberg.
Hungarian jr middleweight Attila "the Viper" Kovacs take on Pole Marcin Piatkowski on April 22 in Paks. Jr lightweight Janos Nagy is in against Russian Eugeni Strausov.
The Nicolay Popov vs Nuri Seferi heavyweight clash will now take place on April 26 in Moscow. It was originally scheduled for April 15.
Florida-based Swedish cruiserweight Ismael Koné is waiting for his green card but a comeback in Europe is likely to happen.
