Life after boxing wasn´t easy for Anders, who saw most of his ring earnings go up in smoke due to taxes, a divorce and lawsuits from some of his ex-trainers. Eklund was a carpenter by trade and played music on the side. According to media he was going through a second divorce at the time of his death and there were rumors of a lifestyle not suited for a person with diabetes and Anders did look an "old" 52. He´s been ranked # 7 in Sweden by boxing historian Olof Johansson but had the capacity for a lot more - but could never really put it together in his crossroads (Olympics, Bruno, Damiani) fights.
Arena Box Promotion will stage an interesting 10-fight show in Schwerin on April 9 with the main fights televised by EuroSport. Veteran Juan Carlos Gomez, reigning WBA Int´l heavy champ, continues his comeback and face Alexander Kahl over eight in the headliner. Heavies Konstantin Airich and Ondrey Pala are also in action. Airich is in against Alexey Varakin while Pala square off against Sergey Babich. Alex Mazikin, floored four times by bodyshots from J C Gomez March 27, make a quick return and fight Latvian Edgars Kalnars, once a decent journeyman, now a notorious soft touch.
Romanian jr welterweight Jo Jo Dan, normally based in Canada, returns home to Bucharest and Brazilian Andre Marcos Nascimento April 10 in a fight for the WBC Continental Americas title. The show is put together by King Promotion and Merkur Casino.
International Entertainment lost the court case against Sauerland Event and German network ARD. Int´l Entertainment, headed by Mogens Palle, had sued Sauerland and German network ARD in regards of the TV rights to Markus Beyer vs Mikkel Kessler in 2006. Palle had planned to do it PPV in Denmark but discovered too late that ARD could be seen in a lot of cable networks in Denmark. Palle sued on ground that the Sauerland / ARD didnt´block the signal even though the contract clearly stated that the TV rights to Scandinavia belonged to Palle. A complicated affair indeed and while the court found Sauerland not guilty, they also forced them to pay their own legal fees. Palle has to pay damages to ARD (to the amount of about 87,000 EUR), whom the court regards as a third party with nothing really to do with the deal with Sauerland and Palle.
