By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Ramie Laput’s defense of his WBO Intercontinental title against Zolt “Lefthook” Bedak in a battle of world-rated fighters is in jeopardy after the Filipino boxer was denied a visa by the Austrian Embassy in Manila.
In a brief email, Laput’s manager Kenneth Smith informed us “ we are still in Manila.. Laput’s visa denied. Sammy Gell-ani (Filipino promoter) is at the Austrian embassy now trying to get this resolved. This is our last possible day to get this done or Laput vs Bedak will not happen..Maybe it will work out today.”
Laput is scheduled to fight the undefeated Bedak on Friday, December 4 at the Freizeit Arena in Solden, Austria in a fight card of the internationally respected Klaus-Peter Kohl of Universum Box Promotions and Smith was confident of the outcome telling us “when Laput wins will be off to the big time for him and his team.”
Laput is rated No. 4 by the WBO while Bedak is a notch higher at No. 3 and is also rated No. 9 by theWBA.
Bedak won the WBO European super bantamweight title with a unanimous twelve round decision over Franklin Teran on March 7 and successfully defended the title with a 2nd round TKO over Yersin Jailauov last August 22.
Laput won the WBO Intercontinental title with an 11th round disqualification of former WBO bantamweight champion Ratanachai Sor Vorapin of Thailand on May 28, 2009. Vorapin was disqualified for throwing a roundhouse kick at Laput after he was cut, turned his back on the Filipino and got tagged with two punches.
In his last fight Laput scored a ten round unanimous decision over Eric Macas on September 25.
