By Per Ake Persson

WBA middleweight champ Felix Sturm will defend the title on June 30 at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart with GBU jr. bantamweight queen Alesia Graf in the co-headliner. Opponents for both are to be announced. With shows on June 16 in Budapest, this event in Stuttgart and then July 14 in Hamburg with Krasniqi vs. Thompson, Universum make a strong finish of the season.
 
Ornulf Hansen, President of the Norwegian Boxing Federation, recently revealed in the Norwegian media that he had to accept a ban on professional boxing in the country back in 1980 to preserve the amateur game. Hansen states that those behind pro boxing ruined things for themselves and gives an example when they wanted the then 17-year old Terje Sveen to turn pro. As it was, pro-boxing was prohibited beginning in January 1, 1981. Terje Sveen developed into a good amateur who went 7-1 in the pros. Hansen today still heads the Norwegian Federation, which holds a full membership in the EBU, while all Norwegian pros fight and are licensed abroad.
 
Lightweights Hoang Sang Nguyen and Muzaffer Tosun clash June 3 in Palma de Mallorca.
The Martial Arts Delegation in Sweden never published their report online about the New Sweden show on March 31 in Gothenburg but, are again quite criticial towards the promoters and also of the pro boxing commission. It´s the fight between light heavy Giulian Ilie and the much - 20+ kilos - heavier Werner Kreiskott that draws MAD´s attention. It was a last minute job put together on the day of the show but went against the guidelines set up by MAD in regards of safety of the participants. MAD also point out that the roles between the promoter and the pro boxing commission weren´t clear.
 
Heavyweight boxer Umberto Evora grace the cover of the june edition of Portugese trade paper BoXing. Evora also doubles in K-1 and is probably a bigger star there than in boxing.