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Richel Hersisia vs Antoine Palatis on Aug. 23
13.08 - Having never previously fought a southpaw in his 13-fight pro career (all wins, 11 by KO), Dutch heavyweight hotshot Richel Hersisia takes a bit of a gamble when tackling just that in his first eight-rounder on August 23 in the most northern Danish city of Skagen. Opposing the man from Den Haag will be experienced 32-year-old former two-weight French champion Antoine Palatis from Albertville.
The fight will mark not only a step up in scheduled rounds for Hersisia, but also in quality of opposition with Palatis coming to Denmark with the cleverness accumulated in 43 previous outings. The Frenchman was a EBU-ranked cruiserweight contender while holding his national title and only lost in his second pro fight in his first 21 payed starts. His excellent run came to an end when Palatis had to conceed the French crown to former world title challenger Christophe Girard in 1997. He then jumped up to heavyweight, but found the wins are coming much harder. In only his fourth try, Antoine won the French heavyweight belt in 2000, knocking out Patrice Aouissi in nine rounds, but lost it the same year, being outpointed by former French Olympian Christophe Mendy. However, hard-man Palatis always fought in good company - Bouzid Teboulbi, Danny Williams, Timo Hoffmann, Georgi Kandelaki or Luan Krasniqi could only win decisions against him - and his only inside-the-distance loss as a heavyweight came against current surprise European champion Przemyslaw Saleta.
So what does Dutch knockout specialist Richel Hersisia makes of all this? His first eight-rounder, his first southpaw, his most experienced and resiliant foe? "I will have trained well, have good sparring and it will not matter if he signs the contract with his right or his left hand, as long as he shows up to have a fight," said Hersisia with self assurance. Being just included, for the first time, into the EBU ratings, the Fight Production-managed boxer will have a lot to live up to on this Anders Vester-promotion. Hersisia vs Palatis will be featured on Danish TV2 as a co-headliner to former European welterweight champion Christian Bladt's comeback fight after conceeding his title in April
Manager Schroeder Severs Ties With IBO Champ Raymond Joval
08.08 - In a rather surprise move, German manager Olaf Schroeder revealed today that his company Fight Production has severed ties, effective immediately, with one of their most prolific clients, current IBO world middleweight champion Raymond "Hallelujah" Joval.
Dutchman Joval, who turned pro in 1994 and signed with Schroeder four years later at a time when his promising career seemed without direction, will be 34 years next month. While being part of the Fight Production stable, the man from Amsterdam easily enjoyed the most successful phase of his career during the last four years. Under Schroeder's guidance he first won the IBO Intercontinental belt and then progressed to destroy Agostino Cardamone in Italy to win the WBU world title in 1999. However, in his only loss while being managed by Schroeder, Joval insisted to return to Italy and was relieved of the title in the same year by a narrow points loss to Antonio Perugino. An eye injury from that encounter which was not treated properly in Italy kept Joval out of action for nine months, but despite the loss Schroeder was able to organize a home-country shot at IBO champion Mpush Makambi in Holland and Joval successfully took his second world title belt. Two successful defences plus three non-title wins since then brought Joval's record to an impressive 29-2 (14 KO's).
"We had great achievements together and Ray was always a thorough professional in the ring," said Schroeder in reflection, "but managing him was tough, as it always is when a boxer believes his own world is the real world. Barry Hearn promoted Ray's three IBO title fights in Holland, which were thrilling affairs without a doubt, but the crowd never improved beyond club level, Matchroom lost money and no meaningful Dutch television channel was even interested to ponder the idea of supporting Raymond. I know it is a rare occurance that a manager lets go a highly-rated world champion when the contract is still running, but I rather have it that way because I have my principles. I wish Raymond all the best with his future career and hope that if he ever signs with another manager, he can convince himself to do the boxing and leave the managing to the manager."
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