By Per Ake Persson
WBA I/C welterweight champ Vyacheslav Senchenko defends the title against Frenchman Frederik Klose on July 8 in Donetsk, Ukraine. In the other main bouts Oleg Yefimovich and Sergio Blanco fight for the vacant EBU featherweight title. Super middleweight prospect Stas Kashtanov faces Konstantyn Makhankou for the EE-EU belt. The same title is at stake at featherweight as Stanislav Merdov takes on Yuri Voronin in an-all Ukrainian showdown. Lightweights Andrei Kudryavtsev and Agali Alyshev are both featured on the undercard in separate bouts.
German Jurgen Brahmer face Frenchman Rachid Kanfouah on the undercard to Valuev vs. Chagaev and Sturm vs. Griffin on July 5 in Halle / Westfalen. Brahmer is now campaigning at light heavyweight and could be fighting the winner of Hugo Garay and Yuri Barashian July 3 in Buenos Aires.
WBA super middleweight challenger Dmitri Sartison have prepared first in Moscow and then in Hamburg. Sartison says he will have completed over a 100 rounds of sparring come next week. Mikkel Kessler completes his sparring tomorrow with six rounds against Lolenga Mock.
Francesco Pianeta and Scott Gammer square off for the vacant EU heavyweight title on the undercard to Povetkin vs. Sykes July 19 in Chirkov, Russia.
WBC Int´l middle champ Domenico Spada defends against Pole Mariusz Cendrowski July 1 in Campione d´Italia with OPI 2000 promoting.
Swedish-based manager and promoter Eddie Bazira have signed a co-manager deal with Estonian Alexandr Karavayev. Together they manage ten decent Estonian and Russian pros from superbantam up to supermiddle. Among the names are Albert Starikov, Sergey Melis, Leonty Vorontshuk and Andrey Kostin.
Cuban Erislandy Lara is now officially signed to Arena Box Promotion. Lara, Olympic gold medallist at welterweight in 2005, fled Cuba on a speedboat, landed in Mexico but is now in Hamburg. He will make his pro debut in Istanbul on July 4 on the Sam vs Vidoz show.
Slovenian welter Jan Zaveck will still face German Marco Cattikas June 15 in Maribor despite being all set to fight EBU champ Jackson Osei Bonsu also in Maribor July 26.
There´s a documentary made in Norway about the colorful light heavyweight Ole Klemetsen and his family. Ole was a big amateur star, turned pro, showed big talent, a big punch but also a weak defence. All in all it lead to quite a career that began in 92 and ended 01 with Big John, Ole´s father, as chief advisor. There were lucrative fights on both sides of the Atlantic, a number of managerial and promotorial changes, huge sums of money made and spent.
Attila "the Hun" Levin have been added to Pugnus´ show in Karlstad, Sweden, September 5, Levin, 30-3, hails from Sweden but have been based in Florida during his entire procareer. This will be his first profight ever in Sweden. An interesting sidenote is that Levin beat Anders Holmberg, co-promoter for the show, in his last amateur appearance in Sweden which dates back to 1997.
Jean Marc Monrose defends the EBU cruiserweight title against Merick Roberge in an all French matchup July 26 in Le Cannet in the chief support to Asloum vs Segura.
It will be Ivan Gontsa, from Moldova but fighting out of Ukraine, that square off against EBU jr. middleweight champ Zauerbek Baysangurov on the undercard to Klitschko vs Thompson July 12 in Hamburg.
Johny Jensen and Marco Huck are co-challengers for the vacant EU cruiserweight title.
Danish lightweight prospect Kasper Bruun has replaced Ervis Masha and takes on Italian Roberto Priore on the undercard to Kessler vs. Sartison June 21 in Brondby.
