Always well informed German tabloid Bild writes that WBA middle champ Felix Sturm next defends the title July 11 at the Nuerburg Ring Formula 1 Stadion. Arena Box Promotions have announced that Mahir Oral would be a perfect opponent for Sturm. Somehow I feel the rival Hamburg promoters are not in agreement on this. Oral is currently in training for a defence of the WBC Int´l title against Russian Dmitry Pirog June 26.
Arena´s June 26 show will go ahead in Volklingen – near Saarbruecken – and also feature an interesting heavyweight clash between Steffen Kretschmann and Dennis Dakhtov as well as jr welter Sergey Sorokin vs Yodsanan Sor Nanthachai. In regards of the WBC eliminator between Herbie Hide and Matt Godfrey there´s news to come in the very near future.
German supermiddles Dmitri Sartison and Lukas Wilschek were suppposed to clash May 2 in Bremen on the big Universum show there. Then Sartison got injured and the fight was cancelled. Wilaschek was then lined up to fight Robert Stieglitz for the WBC Int´l title May 15 in Magdeburg and the matchup was announced by SES. Then Lukas got injured so Stieglitz-Wilaschek is also off.
Serdar Sahin, who began his procareer as the winner of a newcomer tournament. will challenge German cruiser champ Mario Stein May 30 in Erfurt.
Finnish veteran Kai Kauramaki won the vacant BBU middleweight title Friday (April 24) night in Jaroslaw, Poland. Kai was trailing on two scorcards with the third even going into the eighth and final round when Polish opponent Mariusz Cendrowski suffered a painful shoulder injury and was forced to retire. In the headliner big heavy Mariusz Wach stopped even bigger Julius Long in seven to retain the TWBA title.
The WBO annual convention will go ahead August 24-28 in Budapest. Check wbo-europe.com for more info.
WBA heavy champs Nikolai Valuev and Ruslan Chagaev will meet tomorrow in Helsinki for the first press conference in the buildup to their showdown May 30 at the Hartwall arena. There haven´t been any official announcements on the undercard but the biggest Finnish ticketseller, Amin Asikainen, is not on the bill.
EBU bantam champ Malik Bouziane defends the title June 19 in Massy, France, on a EuroProm show against Belgian Carmelo Ballone.