By Per Ake Persson

The Martial Arts Delegation in Sweden turned, as expected, down a request from the Swedish Federation for a special permission to have pro fights with a longer scheduled distance than the current 12 minutes. MAD sites the Martial Arts Law which also regulates proboxing and it´s pretty clear that the special Swedish rules are here to stay. The fact that Swedish Federationa argued that pro boxing is less dangerous than amateur boxing probably didn´t help either. 

The dispute between WBA super middleweight champ Mikkel Kessler and Team Palle is a big story in Denmark. Kessler claims in one interview that the the dual role of manager and promoter is to blame for the situation. Mogens Palle states to one paper that he feels the situation will be worked out and also - surprisingly - says that his goal was to make an all-Danish showdown between Kessler and Mads Larsen, a fight that could have been huge a few years but now appears to have lost much of its attraction given how much Larsen have slipped. Both Kessler and Palle have previously said no to Larsen, who´s promoted by Sauerland Event, who now turns a fight agaist Kessler down and work on having Lucian Bute defending the IBF title against Larsen. 

IBF middleweight champ Arthur Abraham´s next defense goes - as previously reported -ahead March 14 with Kiel as site. Sauerland Event´s First Lady Cecilia Braekhus will go for her first title on the show, possibly against Sweden´s Anna Ingman in a supporting bout. 

Osman Aktas defends the national featherweight title against Guillaume Frenois in the chief support to Cristobal Cruz´s defense of the IBF 126 lb title against Cyril Thomas February 16 in St Quentin, France. Also on the bill is South African jr welterweight Philippe Ndou, jr middleweight Demetrius Andrade and light heavyweight Michael Sweeney. The show is promoted by R 2 Image & Events, Sports Evenements, Banner Promotions and Golden Gloves - four promotional outfits from four different countries.

Italian OPI 2000 have won purse bids to stage Giacobbe Fragomeni´s defense of the WBC cruiserweight crown against Pole Krzystof Wlodarczyk and will stage the fight March 28 in Rome or Milan. OPI 2000 also won the purse bids for Adrian Diaconu vs. Silvio Branco, a WBC fight at light heavyweight. Date and site is to be announced.

The Spanish Federation protested to the EBU about the appointment of Devis Boschiero as mandatory challenger for jr. lightweight champ Sergey Gulyakevich. The EBU responded and removed Boschiero as OC, re-installed him as EU ruler and Leva Kirakosian, fighting with a Spanish license, is now Gulyakevich´s mandatory challenger. Kirakosian fights next in Vigo January 16 on the undercard to Pozo vs. Rodriguez for the EBU flyweight title.

Sauerland Event´s chief coach, Ulli Wegner, tells Bild Zeitung he´s very unhappy with the shape of cruiser Alexander Frenkel and heavyweight Francesco Pianeta. Both had been given an individual a training program over Christmas but returned to the gym several kilos overweight.