By Per Ake Persson
Russian giant Nicolay Valuev and American Larry Donald square off on October 1 at the Ewe Arena in Oldenburg in an WBA eliminator. The winner will face champ John Ruiz. Valuev is currently training at high altitude in Armenia.
Italian Sport Promotions will stage WBO ruler Johnny Nelson´s defense against Vincenzo Cantatore on November 16 in Rome. Sport Promotions, headed by Francesca Minardi, who is married to Cantatore, won today´s (Aug 23) purse bids in London with an offer of 160K USD. ISP is collaborating with Loreni Boxe.
EBU flyweight champ Ivan Pozo makes a voluntary defense of the title against Lahcene Zemmouri on September 16 in Vigo, Spain.
Ukrainian heavy Vladimir Virchis defends the WBO I/C title against Lisandro Ezequiel Diaz on September 10 in Karlsruhe on the undercard of Halmich vs Rosa (WIBF fly).
US attorney and manager Michael Marley said that he would have retired Swedish middleweight Tonton Semakala lined up for the Contender. However, Tonton moved back to Stockholm and turned the offer down because of the bad back injury that forced him to retire. Semakala recently began a career as a trainer.
