Former IBF middleweight champ Sebastian Sylvester might take a different route on his way back to the top than through the IBF tournament where Sebastian was pencilled in for a fight Sam Soliman. Sylvester is now official challenger for EBU ruler Darren Barker, who of course is in line to take on superstar Sergio Martinez and thus might relinquish the title. Sebastian would then get a fight against the highest available challenger for the vacant title.
Sauerland won today´s purse bids for the right to promote Kubrat Pulev against Martin Rogan for the vacant EU heavyweight title. Pulev vs Rogan go ahead August 27 in Germany.
P 3 Boxing will promote Denis Shafikov vs Giuseppe Lauri for the vacant EBU jr welter crown. When and where is to be announced. This fight has been on and off a few times by now but P 3 Boxing and OPI 2000 reached an agreement.
The EBU excluded three members at their General Assembly June 11 as the members from Slovenia, Israel and Malta (the Malta Boxing Board of Control) where all ousted. One new member, from Kosovo, was affiliated while another federation joined from Malta on a provisional basis along with a Macedonian federation. It was also made clear that the EBU is a championship organisation which administrate the EBU titles and nothing else. The so called “safety agreement” signed by all the EBU members have very little value these days. A fighter in Europe today, especially in Germany, can cruise through the system and continue to fight while suspended elsewehere. Take the case of 51-year old Croatian Asmir Vojnovic who is under indefinite suspension from the Croatian Federation since several years but recently fought and lost in Germany and unfortunately he´s not alone.