By Per Ake Persson
Jr middleweights Lukas Konecny and Ante Bilic were booked in separate headliners on Spotlight Boxing´s show in Prague on May 9 but will now square off against eachother in a solid mainevent. At stake are the IBF I/C and WBO I/C titles. Bilic holds the WBC Youth title already. Spotlight´s Czech cruiserweight Rudolf Kraj fight compatriot Jendrich Velick for the vacant national title in the chief support. At super middleweight Dmitri Sartison takes on Michal Bilak. Part of the show goes out on boxing.de while EuroSport televise the main fights live.
EBU jr welterweight champ Jr Witter´s defense against Italian Giuseppe Lauri will go to a new round of purse bids with May 3 as the deadline. OPI 2000 won the first purse bids but were unable to promote the fight.
French super middleweight Jean Paul Mendy has reportedly turned down an offer to fight WBA ruler Mikkel Kessler and will instead take on Brit Matthew Barney on June 10 in Lucé for the vacant EU title.
OPI 2000 won purse bids for the rights to stage Manny Siaca vs Silvio Branco for the interim WBA light heavyweight title but it´s now rumored that Team Siaca are trying to buy the fight and stage it in Puerto Rico.
Torrevieja Boxing Club on the Spanish Gold Coast promotes a show on May 19 with jr welter Emiliano Casal and welterweight Michael Grant in featured bouts. Casal and Grant are currently sparring with Finland´s Mika Joensuu.
Polish heavy Albert Sosnowski might return after a year out on May 25 in Carnival City, South Africa.
Danish police have arrested a 29-year old man for the killing of former IBC supercruiser champ Tue Bjorn Thomsen, who was stabbed to death this past weekend during a brawl at a nightclub in Copenhagen.
There´s been negotiations between the BDB, Bund Deutscher Berufsboxer, who holds the EBU membership, and the GBA, German Boxing Association, the two Federations in Germany about some kind of agreement. Over the past two years some fighters have "wandered" between Federations.
Featherweights Domenico Urbano and Sergio Blanco clash for the vacant EU title on June 2 on the island of Ibiza.
WBA I/C 140 lb champ Andreas Kotelnik takes on Venezuelan Richard Reina on the Krasniqi vs Bostice bill on April 29 in Stuttgart.
German heavyweight Gene Pukall will try to regain the WAA title on May 20 in Bauzen. Pukall was last seen getting blasted out in one against Rene Dettweiler.
Polish light heavyweight Dawid Kostecki headlines a Hammer Knockout show on May 6 with Norwegian jr welterweight Geir Inge Jorgensen, who´s managed by Emanuel Steward, on the undercard.
The postponed Gianfranco Rosi vs Christophe Karagoz fight goes ahead on April 29 at a gym in Budapest, Hungary, and will be the sole pro fight on a amateur show. The 49-year old ex-World champ, now with a Hungarian licence, will defend the IBF Mediterranean 160 lb title. Referee will be Italian Rafaele Argiolas.
The 13th Fernand Roelands Memorial May 1 in Bruges features Erik Nazarian on top taking on Dutchman Innocent Anyanwu in a fight made at jr welterweight.
WBA I/C welter champ Yuriy Nuzhnenko headlines National Boxing Promotion´s show in Kiev on June 10. Vyacheslav Uzelkov and Vasyl Kondor clash for the vacant Ukrainian 175 lb title in the chief support.
IBO jr middleweight ruler Steve Conway, fresh off two wins over Hungarian Mihaly Kotai, defends the title against Attila Kovacs on June 3 Szolnok, Hungary. Contracts for the fight were signed just five days after Conway had scored his second defeat over Kotai in March, but Kovacs first had to take care of business on April 22 on Felix-Promotion´s last show. Kovacs knocked out Marcin Piatkowski.
