By Per Ake Persson
Evander Holyfield tells Danish paper Ekstrabladet that he needed eight stitches to close the cut he received from a clash of heads during a fight against Sherman Williams last Saturday night. Holyfield insists the fight against the comebacking Brian Nielsen, set for March 5 in Denmark, won´t be postponed and Sauerland sent out a press release with the same message on Sunday morning.
However, I´m sure there were shock waves in the entire Team Sauerland when they watched Holyfield´s performance against Williams. After three rounds he was down on points 29-28 on all cards and was visible shaken in the third. What was even more disturbing was the way he missed with his punches and also seemed to be out of breath. Sauerland has since pumped out two more press releases, including one where Brian Nielsen declared that he had detected weaknesses in Holyfield´s armor. Well they were there for all to see but how strong is the 45-year old Nielsen after nine years out? The third press release declared that tickets were going fast.
German light heavyweight Thomas Ulrich, a former EBU champ and world title challenger, have according to Bild signed a three fight deal with Sauerland Event. Ulrich, 32-5, retired in the spring of 2009 after back to back losses but returned in the fall of 2010. Ulrich was an exellent amateur and was considered a bright prospect in the pros but always lost the crossroads fights and developed a habit of pulling out fights for rather weak reasons. In later years, once in the ring, Thomas always gave all and was a dangerously entertaining performer. Ulrich will make his debut for Sauerland in April on a show headlined by WBO cruiserweight king Marco Huck.
Zoltan Petranyi won the vacant Hungarian and UBO European heavyweight titles Saturday night in Gyomro with a fifth round stoppage of Laszlo Toth. Petranyi says he is mainly a promoter and manager these days but is in the gym every day and if an offer comes along he will fight again.
Willie Casey has relinquished the EBU super bantamweight title to concentrate on a possible shot at the WBA interim title. The vacant title will be contested between Kiko Martinez and the highest available challenger.
Norwegian Andreas Evensen lost to WBO jr lightweight champ Ricky Burns in December but showed a lot of courage in defeat and made a lot of friends in Scotland. Evensen will now according to press in Norway spar with Burns as he prepares for his next defense in March against Joseph Laryea.
