Another edition of the French “Grand Tournoi” will go ahead during the winter and spring of 2009, this time the fighters are from welter and jr middle. Some of the names are Hussain Bayram, Damien Bertu, Franck Harroche-Horta, Choukri Yentour, Jimmy Colas and Frederic Serre – all pretty good.
Belgian welter “Sugar” Jackson Osei Bonsu have left Antwerp for final preparations in the Ardennes mountains. Osei Bonsu face Carlos Baldomir in a WBC eliminator on Saturday at the Lotto Arena. Should Jackson win he will then have to fight another eliminator before getting a world title shot. Back in June it all looked different. Prior to Jackson´s defence against Viktor Plotnikov everybody talked world title shots and USA – Jackson beat Plotnikov but the his team had him lined up to fight both Rafael Jackiewicz and Jan Zaveck inside a month in the early fall. As it was the Belgian lost to Jackiewicz in a big upset and an already scheduled eliminator against Baldomir had to be cancelled. Now it´s on again, well sort of, but it will be a very long way back for Jackson should he lose and only one step ahead should he win. There are only two profights on this show, in the other Selajdin Koxha square off against Houssein Hammouch for the vacant Belgian supermiddle title.
The annual Christmas Day show in Izegem, Belgium, with roots back to the 60´s, have lightweights Innocent Anyanwu and Hovhannes Zamkochyan on top in a BeNeLux title fight. In the chief support jr middle Nefzi Ayoub is in against Christian Frias.
BoxingKings in Bern, Switzerland, stage their annual event December 26 and this year local man Yves Studer challenge EE-EU middle champ Vedrat Akrap from Croatia in the headliner.
Former EBU welter champ Fortunato Manca have passed away at the age of 74 in Cagliari. Manca, 69-8-4, who was around in a very strong era in a very good weight division, won the EBU title in 64 with a ko over then undefeated Frenchman Francois Pavilla and then defended it in Spain against Carmelo Garcia. Later that year he moved up to jr middle but lost to alltime great Sandro Mazzinghi on points over fifteen rounds. He split two fights with Dane “Gentleman” Christ Christensen. Manca was forced to retire at the age of 31 in 1965 with a detached retina – at that time manager Umberto Branchini was said to had secured a fight with World welter champ Emile Griffith.
Ukrainian – based in Belgium and promoted by Sauerland Event – heavyweight Oleg Platov returns after over a year out for various reasons on the undercard to Valuev-Holyfield. Platov takes on American Jason Gavern.
17.12 Euro News
