By Per Ake Persson
IBF and WBO heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko have according to German paper Bild Zeitung received an offer of five-million euro from Sauerland Event to face Alexander Povetkin, the IBF mandatory challenger - and turned it down. Wladimir insists on fighting WBO mandatory Tony Thompson in July, but the matter is complicated. Sauerland, ob behalf of Povetkin, have protested the matter to the IBF and a decision is expected soon.
WBA heavyweight champ Ruslan Chagaev´s defence of the title against Nikolai Valuev will go ahead May 31 at the Koenig Pilsener Arena in Oberhausen. It seems as if WBA bantamweight titleholder Wladimir Sidorenko will defend the title against Panamanian challenger Anselmo Moreno in the chief support.
The undercard to Sturm-Pittman on April 5 in Duesseldorf feature several interesting matchups. Of note is the pro debut of heavyweight Markus Tomala and the comeback of Manuel Charr. Charr was previously with Sauerland Event but landed behind bars after being accused of stabbing a man in a gang related feud. The case is still not closed but for now Charr is trained by Fritz Sdunek and fights for Universum. Russian heavy Vladimir Tereshkin face Adnan Serin in his first test as pro. Jurgen Brahmer test the waters at light heavy in his fight against Karim Bennama and touted middleweight Gennadyi Golovkin squares off against Canadian Ian Gardner.
Heavyweight veteran David Tua headlines a World Sporting Promotion on July 12 in Odessa, Ukraine, with Israeli heavyweight Roman Greenberg in a supporting bout. The show will feature heavyweights only.
The EBU have named Italian Mouhamed Ali Ndiaye official challenger for EU super middleweight champ Lolenga Mock. Mock beat Ndiaye on a close call in Odense on March 14 but to this reporter and many other ringsiders it looked as if Ndiaye had nicked it. His promoter, Davide Buccioni, was to put it mildly very upset.
The "Grand Tornoi" in France continues April 17 at Cirque d´Hiver in Paris with Denis Saioni vs. Sylvain Gomis, and Woilid Guarras-Alain Sebire, both fights are scheduled for six and made at middleweight. In the main event French welterweight champ Franck Harroche Horta defends against Nicolas Guisset.
Polish cruiserweight Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, the former IBF champ, keeps busy with a fight against George Sabuni on April 5 in Warka. Veteran journeyman Dariusz Snarski face Hungarian Istvan Nagy in a WBF I/C lightweight match.
Former Italian welterweight champ Adriano Offreda was tragically killed in a car accident recently. Offreda went 14-1-2 as a pro and split two fights with Alessandro Duran.
Spanish welterweights Javi Vega and Daniel Perez Salido clash for the national title on April 4 in Madrid.
WBC Youth jr. welterweight champ Ali Chebah defends against Thai Saengsakda Charoenkasem on April 17 in Bejaia, Algeria.
Danish promoter Robert Larsen promotes in Fredrikssund April 19 with welterweight Christian Bladt, jr. light Robert Osiobe and lightweight Kasper Bruun confirmed for the show.
