By Dmitry Mikhalchuk (at the scales) and Alexey Sukachev, photo by boxnews.com.ua

The 19th of May could very well be the birth of a new (though not entirely “brand new”) boxing company, which can soon become the third pillar of Ukrainian boxing community alongside Donetsk-based Union Boxing Promotion and recently-created K2 Promotions Ukraine, led by Vitaly Klitschko and Alexander Krasyuk. During the Wednesday presser at “Freestyle” Sports Complex, the head of what was previously known as the K2 East Promotions Vadim Bukhkalov and Stepan Chernovetsky, the son of Kiev mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, announced a long-awaited merging between K2 East and a young, growing stable of Elite Boxing Promotions (chairman Roman Valesiuk and head coach Andrey Sinepupov).

The first installment of their conjoint activities will be held tomorrow at the very same Sports Complex (an inaugural event for this arena) and will feature two title twelve-rounders as well as a number of prospects in an undercard.

The relationship between Bukhkalov and Vitaly Klitschko had a long history going backwards to at least the year of 2007. In November 2007 a creation of K2 East Promotions, based on Bukhkalov’s National Box Promotion under the aegis of Klitschko brothers, has been announced. For about two years the conjoint company had been one of the stalwarts of Ukrainian boxing system having arranged a number of tournaments all across Ukraine and even in some foreign countries. However, the partnership abruptly ended in February 2010, when Vitaly Klitschko announced his departure from the K2 East. During the recent presser Vadim Bukhkalov has answered several heated questions about the new promotional company, its upcoming activities and its relationship with former partners.

- Everybody has already known that this past winter Vitaly Klitschko had left the council of founders of the K2 East Promotions. For several months I have been discussing the future of my stable with partners from USA, including a good share of well-known promoters. We have nine boxers under contract right now and we are experiencing some specific problems as several of them don’t follow their responsibilities. We shall initiate some legal actions against them in the nearest future. Elite Boxing Promotions, which is ruled by Stepan Chernovetsky, has its rights on six more established boxers. Stepan offered me a deal, which couldn’t have been denied. I decided to accept his lucrative offer for our mutual benefit in the future so now we are uniting our efforts to build a new huge promotional company. Its exact name hasn’t been solidified yet, and we are working on it. I don’t think we shall stick to our previous trademark; now it’s time to go forward. As for our nearest plans, we shall stage another big tournament this summer in Ukraine. It’ll be a huge promotion.

- Does your merging with Stepan Chernovetsky mean a challenge to Klitschko brothers and to Vitaly in particular?

- I’m not a warrior, I’m a businessman. I’m not in war with Vitaly and I’m not issuing any challenges. My goal is to help Ukrainian fighters to grow and I’m not here to compete with Vitaly and his new company. But we are working on the same field. That’s why I called Stepan for help.

- Who has the control stock?

- Go figure yourself. That doesn’t matter. I’m not interested in this question.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first tournament of the unified boxing company will take its place tomorrow at “Freestyle” Sports Complex. Two title twelve-rounders will most probably be broadcasted live by ICTV channel; the broadcast starting at 11 PM LT (GMT+2). Media credentials can be reserve by phone: +38 (044) 278-44-21.

Today a weigh-in has been conducted under the guidance of WBA representatives, which came to Kiev to supervise two minor title match-ups as headliners of the upcoming show.

Title fights

1. WBA #5/ WBO #11 Avtandil Khurtsidze (20-1-2, 12 KOs) weighed in at 159 lbs for the defense of his WBA I/C and EBA titles against Hungarian Mihaly Kotaly (36-3-1, 16 KOs), who has initially weighed in at 160.7 lbs but tipped the scale 30 minutes at the division limit.

2. Valentyn Kuts (20-1, 8 KOs) 134.5 vs Sam Rukundo (15-1-1, 6 KOs) 135. Rukundo used two attempts to make weight. The fight is sanctioned for the vacant EBA lightweight title.

Undercard

Dmitry Kucher (8-0, 7 KOs) 195.5 vs. Mikhail Nasyrov (19-2, 13 KOs) 203
Victor Postol (9-0, 7 KOs) 142.7 vs. Mamasoli Kimsanbaev (11-3, 4 KOs)148.7
Timur Akhundov 127 (10-2, 4 KOs) vs. Farhodbek Oripov (9-5-1, 4 KOs) 130
Igor Fanyan (9-0-1, 6 KOs) 149.5 vs. Oleg Demernin (0-2) 150
Daniyar Hanyk (6-0, 3 KOs) 138 vs. Dmytro Bogachuk (1-8-1) 134.7