By Per Ake Persson
British heavyweight Matt Skelton has indeed accepted a position as mandatory challenger for the vacant EBU title along with German Luan Krasniqi. Krasniqi vs. Skelton has been given a deadline of February 18 for both sides to reach an agreement, or they will go to purse bids.
Ex-WBC super middle champ Markus Beyer and Arena Box Promotion will stage a press conference tomorrow to announce their future plans. So far it´s known that Beyer headlines Arena´s show March 14 in Munich.
WBO lightheavy champ Zsolt Erdei began his training camp in Hamburg for the planned April 26 defence.
Juan Carlso Gomez vs. Virchis:Iit now seems that both have withdrawn from the scheduled March 8 showdown. There have also been no comments from Universum in regards of the press release from Virchis and his advisor Oleg Hug. Hug is also matchmaker for Arena, who promotes Gomez. Meanwhile Juan Carlos continues to train under Freddie Roach in Los Angeles and word is he can be ready for March 8 if he has to.
Unbeaten super middleweight Karo Murat, fighting out of Germany and promoted by Sauerland Event but of Armenian descent, faces Russian Sergey Kharchenko for the vacant EE-EU title in a supporting bout to Valuev vs. Lyakhovich on February 18 in Nuremberg.
It could be Theresa Perozzi that faces super middleweight queen Natascha Ragosina on March 15 in Magdeburg with seven titles, including WBA, WBC, WIBF and GBU, at stake.
Swedish Pugnus Promotion stages a show on March 29 in Gothenburg. Who is to fight will be announced within shortly.
Spanish flyweight veteran Rafael Lozano stopped Romanian Ioan Mihai Dragutescu in four on February 3 in Cordoba.
Slovenian welterweight Jan Zaveck, EBU mandatory challenger for champ Jackson Osei Bonsu, is not just the only professional boxer in Slovenia, he also heads the Federation there, provisional member of the EBU. Zaveck is promoted by SES in Magdeburg.
