By Per Ake Persson
EBU 160 lb champ Sebastian Sylvester will make a voluntary defense of the title on April 1 in one of the featured bouts to WBA ruler Nikolai Valuev´s first title defense. Site is to be announced but Krefeld, Hannover or Braunschweig are considered.
OPI 2000´s show January 31 in Vobarno have undergone some late changes. Cruiserweight Giacobbe Fragomeni takes on German Rene Hubner while the Italian title fight at bantam between Giuseppe Truono and Mercurio Ciamitario is cancelled. Armenian middleweight Arsen Khachatrian face Latvian Jurijs Boreiko. Bulgarian Kirkor Kirkorov is in against Frenchman Adolpe Avadja.
Panamanian site lomejordelboxeo.com writes that it will be Ricardo Cordoba that challenges WBA bantamweight ruler Wladimir Sidorenko on March 11 in Hamburg.
Felix-Promotion announced on Jan 24 - that Janos Nagy´s challenge against WBO 130 lb champ Jorge Barrios is on for Las Vegas on March 25. The planned Nagy vs Strausov bout for February 18 fight is thus off in order to not any injury.
German reports indicates that the prosecutors - after some two years of investigation - finally have pressed charges against veteran trainer Werner Papke. Papke was originally - at least in the tabloids - accused for sexual offenses against at underaged kids.
The GBC, Global Boxing Council, starting on Feb 1, will be based in Berlin and that should make it the first world body with headquarters in Germany. Maybe not what German boxing needs the most at the moment.
