Kerman Lejarraga: record, next fight and profile →
Norwegian light heavyweight Alexander Hagen (14-2-1) is currently in Las Vegas and has been sparring with IBF king Caleb Plant among others. Plant is scheduled to face Germany's Vincent Feigenbutz in the coming weeks.
Former WBA interim-super middleweight champ Giovanni De Carolis (28-9-1) is now official challenger for the vacant EBU title. In the other corner is German Emre Cukur (14-0), who´s been in that position for some time and before De Carolis came along it was Juergen Braehmer who was official challenger.
Spanish super welterweight Kermin Lejarraga (29-2) is now official challenger for the vacant EU 154 lb title. Co-challenger is his compatriot Isaac Real (20-3-1). The EBU have set January 8 as deadline for purse offers/agreements.
Jarko Ojapalo (7-0) won the vacant Finnish cruiser title with a split decision over Samuli Karkakkainen (10-1) after a close, exciting fight in the headiner of the Salo Knockout Night in Salo, Finland on Saturday (Nov 30) night. After ten it was scored 98-94 and 98-92 for Ojapalo and 96-95 for Karkkainen. Commentating for Viasat was Juho Haapoja, retired since 2017 with a record of 28-8-2, and he now wants to comeback and fight the winner.
Swedish heavyweight Otto Wallin (20-1-1) is back in training under Joey Gamache at the Mendez Gym in New York City and expects to have his next fight in February of 2020. Wallin told SVT (Swedish public service TV) that there are ongoing negotiations with two major networks in the US. SVT also sited undisclosed sources with an offer for four fights and millions (most likely in Swedish currency) in purses.
It´s official: IBO cruiserweight king Kevin Lerena (24-1) defends the title on February 8 in Goeppingen (Germany) against 48-year old veteran and fomer WBA champ Firat Arslan (47-8-3) with EC Boxing promoting.
Kerman Lejarraga is making a very quick return to the ring. On September 28th, Lejarraga was stopped the first round of his EBU world title rematch with David Avanesyan at the Bilbao Arena of Miribilla. The first time around, in March, Avanesyan stopped him in the ninth.
These are difficult days for Kerman Lejarraga, after last weekend he suffered a stunning first round TKO defeat at the hands of David Avanesyan at the Bilbao Arena in Miribilla. It was a rematch of their first encounter from earlier this year, which Avanesyan also won by knockout.
French Univent promotion will stage a doubleheader on November 15 at l´Accor Hotel Arena in Paris. At super welterweight, Michel Soro (34-2-1) defends the WBA Gold title against Cedric Vitu (47-3) in an all French matchup. Vitu recently passed on a chance to fight for the EBU title in Spain against Sergio Garcia, to get this opportunity.
For the second time in as many tries, David Avanesyan has knocked Kerman Lejarraga out of contention. This time around, he perhaps flushed him all the way out of the queue. Six months after scoring an upset stoppage win over the previously unbeaten welterweight contender, Avanesyan returned to the scene of the crime to score a 1st round knockout in their rematch Saturday evening at Bilbao Arena in Bilbao, Spain.