17.08 - A very uneven Trio will step into the ring on Saturday at Berlin’s Estrel Convention Center. Regina Halmich, jr. flyweight world champion since 1995 and Michel Trabant, European welterweight king since April, are going to defend their title belts whereas undefeated former WBC cruiserweight world champion Juan Carlos Gomez will make his next approach to the heavyweight division.

The 24-year-old Trabant, a citizen of Berlin, will make the very first defense of his European welterweight belt that he captured with an impressive 12-round decision on April 20 from reigning champion Christian Bladt of Denmark. Trabant’s challenger: Hungarian Jozsef Matolcsi.

“A European title fight always means pressure”, Trabant, 36-0 (17 KOs), said.“I know that Matolcsi is quite a dangerous foe. But I’m prepared, I’m in great shape and nothing is going to surprise me.”

The fight between Trabant and Matolcsi will be the third main event televised by ZDF, the new television partner of Universum Box-Promotion. The first two live events were headlined by Wladimir Klitschko vs. Ray Mercer (Atlantic City, June 29) and Luan Krasniqi vs. Przemyslaw Saleta (Dortmund, July 20). The ZDF broadcast will also air the fights of Juan Carlos Gomez and Regina Halmich.

With Matolcsi, 16-2 (11 KOs), Trabant faces a highly confident challenger. “In training we specifically worked on Trabant’s weaknesses”, Matolcsi, 146 lb., explained but didn’t want to tell what those weaknesses are. “I will show inside the ring!”

While it’s the first defense for Trabant, 146.5 lb., it will already be title defense #26 for the record keeping world champion Regina Halmich. Certainly one day somebody should suggest Halmich for a place inside the Guinness Book of Records.

Despite of her countless world title fights and despite the fact that she already fought 302 professional rounds the jr. flyweight champion again had a very intensive preparation for her upcoming contest.

“I have success because I work very hard for it”, the 25-year-old Halmich, 39-1 (14 KOs), said and made clear that she has a lot of respect for her challenger, the 30-year-old American Yvonne Caples, 6-3-1 (1 KO).

“It’s not enough to be just confident of victory. You must work for it.”

In fact Halmich worked very hard in the past weeks, first of all in sparring where she fought against Ada Velez who is holding a world title at bantamweight and outweighed the German by ten pounds.

If you look at the seemingly unbreakable winning streak of Halmich who only lost her 9th pro fight and then never again, you have to wonder if she is aware of the possibility that one day she may suffer another loss.

“The day will come where I will be defeated. This won’t be an easy moment”, Halmich knows. “But in any case I’m not going to retire with a loss.”

Torsten Schmitz, for more than six years the coach of Halmich and since September 2000 also the trainer of Trabant, believes that the biggest problem of Halmich is her over motivation. “Very often Regina is over motivated. In these cases I have to cut her down a bit.”

Before Halmich and Trabant attempt to hold on to their championship belts a skillful and enigmatic Cuban fighter will enter the ring who has vacated his own championship title several months ago: Juan Carlos Gomez, 35-0 (20 KOs), a former WBC cruiserweight world champion and now a top rated heavyweight, will have a tune up fight against Brazilian Daniel Frank, 11-2-1 (11 KOs).

“A very big and awkward fighter”, Gomez said on his upcoming foe who he has studied on video. “He’s a hard puncher, I have to be careful. And he’s a real dirty fighter. I’ve seen one fight were he hit his opponent on the top of the head while the guy was down.”

Gomez who mad ten successful defenses of his WBC 190 lb. belt is currently ranked WBC #9 and WBO #10 at heavyweight. The man who he currently would most like to face is WBA champion John Ruiz.

"Currently there is no one interesting in the heavyweight division - beside the Klitschkos and me," said Gomez. "The true heavyweight champion is Lennox Lewis. John Ruiz is just a joke. A JOKE! He is nothing!”

Gomez weighed in at 223 lb. in front of his tune up bout against Brazil’s “Big” Daniel Frank who put the scales to a massive 256 lb.

“Of course Ruiz holds that WBA title. But everybody knows that there is no way he won the third fight against Holyfield, and in the second fight he was just lucky with one punch that scored that knockdown”, Gomez said. “I would love to fight against John Ruiz. He told everybody that he is the first Latino Champion. But he is NOT! He was born somewhere in the US. I would be the first true Latino world champion. And I will be!" - More news, photos and insider information on boxing.de