Russian cruiser Denis Lebedev is now co-challenger along with former WBA champ Firat Arslan for the vacant EBU title. Deadline for purse bids or agreement is September 24 at noon.
With Juergen Braehmer now WBO interim champ the EBU lightheavyweight title is now vacant. Silvio Branco, official challenger for Braehmer, now have Brit Nathan Cleverly as co-challenger for the vacant title.
Danish supermiddle Rudy Markussen won´t be fighting on the Kessler vs Perdomo undercard in Herning September 12. The show could feature the comeback of “the Contender” participant Ahmed Kaddour, 20-2-1, who is back in Denmark again. The now 27-year old Kaddour was at one time hailed as one of the best prospects ever to come out of Scandinavia but showed already early in his career an alarming lack of stamina.
German promoter Ahmet Oener was shot down late Tuesday evening in Hamburg. As to why it happend there are speculation that is has to do with unfinished business in the red light industry. As evidence it´s offered that the way Oener was shot is a typical “final warning” in this industry – nothing is confirmed though. Oener himself tells Bild that he believe the shooting is related to his boxing business. Berliner Morgenpost writes that Arena could be in financial trouble after huge investments in boxing since 2006. This could very well be true – the other side of the coin is that if you have the likes of Yuriorkis Gamboa, Odlanier Solis and others in the stable it´s likely that the investments will pay off with a good interest rate.
French jr welter Willy Blain is now sort of back home and is no longer promoted by Spotlight Boxing in Hamburg. Blain is now signed to Boxing Club Seynois in Var and will be working with ex-EBU bantam champ Louis Gomis. Blain, nicknamed “Small Leonard”, was stopped in a WBO interim title fight in April by Lamont Peterson.
The WBO and the EBU seems to have locked horns pretty hard if you believe reports from the ongoing WBO convention. The EBU have apparently reacted towards the WBO “European” title the same way they did towards the EBA: fighters holding the WBO Euro title are not ranked by the EBU and officials working WBO Euro fights can´t work EBU fights.
27.08 Euro News
