European king Trabant to battle French champion Klose
14.01 - Essen Next Saturday undefeated Michel Trabant will defend his European welterweight title for the second time when he takes on French champion Frederic Klose at Grugahalle in Essen. He prepared for this fight for three months. According to Trabant it was one of the hardest preparations hes had in his career.
The past weeks were very hard. I worked with two excellent sparring partners who posed a big challenge to me in training, Trabant said. All in all it was a very hard preparation, I had no injuries and I believe Im in very good shape.
After his original opponent Jacek Bielski had to call off because of an injury Trabant will now take on French champion Frederic Klose.
The man from Plaisir won 32 of his 35 contests and dropped three decisions. However, his last loss dates five years back. Since February 1997 Klose scored 20 consecutive wins and became French welterweight champion in 1999, a title that he defended five times.
Hes a very strong guy and he has a strong physic, Trabant, 37-0 (18), knows. He throws a good right hand. But Im in great shape and Im convinced that I will win. But I expect a tough fight.
Though fights are nothing new for the man from Berlin. In April of last year Trabant snatched the European welterweight title from reigning champion Christian Bladt with a hard fought 12 round decision. In his first title defense four months later against Hungarian Jozsef Matolci he suffered deep and bleeding cuts in the opening round before he knocked out his challenger in the fifth.
Winning the European title was a major step for me, the charge of coach Torsten Schmitz knows. Im ranked highly by all world boxing organizations. I guess I could get a world title shot any time. But I decided to take my time with Universum and fight for the European title first. I think we made the right decision. Now we have to look and see how things go on.
Trabant is currently ranked #1 by the WBO which makes him the mandatory challenger of world champion Antonio Margarito from Mexico. The WBA ranks the man from Berlin #3. The World Boxing Council has him on #11.
Trabant knows that he has to score a convincing victory in his third European championship if he wants to reach out for a world title in the close future.
There is no doubt Im going to win a decision on Saturday. If I land a good shot at the right moment I may also win by knockout.
Trabants wife Anja, a professional fortune-teller, is already one step further: I read Michels future. One of the things I saw is that he is going to become world champion in 2003.
Also on the card is WBO lightweight world champion Artur Grigorian who defends his crown against Polish Matt Zegan. In two woman world championships the boxing queens Regina Halmich and Daisy Lang take on challengers from Germany.
More news, photos and insider information on www.boxing.de