By Per Ake Persson
On the undercard to Nikolai Valuev vs. Evander Holyfield in Switzerland, Danish super middleweight Mads Larsen, 51-2. stopped Italian Roberto Cocco, 9-3, in the seventh of a scheduled non-title ten rounder Larsen dominated Cocco in every round showing more fire in this fight than all of his previous five comeback bouts since returning in 2007.
Larsen may now be the next opponent for IBF champion Lucian Bute. Sauerland Event, who promotes Larsen, have an option on the Romanian. At the same time the 35-year old Larsen looks far from the exellent fighter he was around 2000. The Dane has also climbed on the WBA ratings
Against Cocco, a limited former kickboxer, Larsen worked very hard but most of his combinations missed the target but he did wear the Italian down finishing the fight with a left upercut, followed by a left swing at which time the towel from Cocco´s corner came flying at 1.49 of round seven.