By Per Ake Persson
The WBA held an executive meeting in Hamburg this past weekend, there were representatives from most of Europe´s main promoters and from Don King Productions.
It now seems certain that WBO 175 lb champ Zsolt Erdei defends the title on May 6 and then goes for an unification fight against WBA title holder Fabrice Tiozzo with July 29 as working date and Lyon as the site.
Frenchman Jackson Chanet was confirmed as the mandatory challenger for WBA super middleweight ruler Mikkel Kessler. At the same time Michel Acaries, Chanet´s promoter, made it clear that his man needs more experience which means the Dane gets the chance for a few voluntary defenses. Mogens Palle feels William Joppy is a suitable opponent for Kessler in a planned May defense.
There are big question marks surrounding WBA welter champ Luis Collazzo and his defense against German Oktay Urkal as there now seems to be visa problems for Urkal - problems that might stem from Oktay´s fight against Kostya Tszyu back in 2001.
Universum heavyweight Luan Krasniqi was removed from his position as mandatory challenger for EBU champ Paolo Vidoz at his own request. Luan wants to shoot directly for a world title. Stablemate Sinan Samil Sam have taken over Krasniqi´s position.
48-year old, going on 49, Italian Gianfranco Rosi, a multiple world champ back in the 90´s, defends the IBF Mediterranean middleweight title on March 25 in Drochtersen, Germany. This is a show sanctioned by the GBA, a non-EBU member. It´s likely that there will be some political turmoil surrounding this event.
Ex-WBA bantamweight king Johnny Bredahl takes on Russian Alexander Fedorov in his comeback bout on March 30 in Copenhagen with the vacant WBO I/C title at stake. In the co-headliner, Martin Kristjansen defends the WBO I/C 135 lb belt. There will be eleven fights on the bill.
Sauerland Event´s heavy Rene Dettweiler will be among Wladimir Klitschko´s sparring partners as he prepares for his bout with Chris Byrd on April 22. French champ Steve Herelius will also spar with Klitschko.
German tabloid Bild Zeitung's headline on the Masoe vs Sturm fight: "Unser neuer Weltmeister: Clever oder Feige?". A clever man or a coward? Sturm´s running in the last two rounds did not sit well with anyone watching the bout and Felix pretty much ruined a solid performance with it. Sturm confirms in the paper that he was hurt in the third - but from there on he dominated Masoe until he began to coast in the tenth.
The pro/am event scheduled for Porvoo, Finland, for Saturday night had to be cancelled after a bombthreat. No word on who did it.
