By Ruslan Chikov

German newspaper, The Hamburg Post , is reporting that promotional company Universum Box-Promotions has advised the majority of their staff members that July 31 will be their last day of work, including CEO Stefan Braune and technical director Kay Foitschik. The fighters and trainers are not being affected. The company is keeping all of them under contract. The latest in a string of hardships for Universum may have to do with their German television contract running out on on July 31. The company was making millions of Euros a year from their deal with ZDF.

Universum's Klaus-Peter Kohl was hoping the new director at ZDF, who started on April 1, would change their decision, but instead he upheld the decision of his predecessor. Kohl told the paper Universum is not going away. They plan to continue with or without the deal with ZDF. They have three televised shows scheduled before the contract runs out, including May 22 in Rostock, May 29 in Budapest (Hungary) and July 3 in Stuttgart.