WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (37-2-1, 26 KOs) will be taking what should be a very easily voluntary title defense this Saturday, August 30th against fringe contender #12 WBO Mirko Larghett (21-0, 13 KOs) at the Gerry Weber Stadium, Halle, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.
This will be the 29-year-old Huck’s 13th title defense of his WBO strap that he won back in 2009 with a 12 round decision over Victor Ramirez.
IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (62-3, 52 KOs) is reportedly working really hard in training camp for his title defense against #1 IBF Kubrat Pulev (20-0, 11 KOs) on September 6th at the O2 World Arena in Hamburg, Germany.
Wladimir is training in Austria, and he’s working with 15 sparring partners, one of which is 2012 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Anthony Joshua. With Wladimir’s deep pockets, he can afford to have a large number of sparring partners and in train in beautiful surroundings.
2012 super heavyweight gold medalist Anthony Joshua is in Austria sparring with IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (62-3, 52 KOs) to get him ready for his fight next month against unbeaten #1 IBF Kubrat Pulev (20-0, 11 KOs) at the O2 World Arena in Hamburg, Germany.
Joshua will be at the Klitschko camp for 10 days of sparring, which should help both fighters improve. This is great for Joshua because he gets to improve his game while at the same time seeing how far apart he is with Wladimir in terms of talent.
Heavyweight Denis Boytsov (33-1, 26 KOs) will be back in the ring near the end of the month in a fight against little known Timur Musafarov (6-1, 5 KOs) in a tune-up bout on the same card as Marco Huck vs. Miko Larghetti title fight at the Gerry Weber Stadion in Halle/Westfalen, Germany, according to Fightnews.
The Boytsov-Musafarov fight will be the co-feature bout on the card. That’s kind of fitting because the main event between WBO cruiserweight champion Huck and #12 WBO Larghetti shapes up to be a horrible mismatch, and adding another mismatch between Boytsov and Musafarov seems to fit in well with the main event of the card.
In what is easily the toughest test since his fight against former WBA champ David Haye in 2011, IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (62-3, 52 KOs) will be putting his belts on the line against #1 IBF Kubrat Pulev (20-0, 11 KOs) next month on September 6th at the O2 World Arena, Altona, in Hamburg, Germany.
Pulev, 6’4 ½”, matches up well with the 6’6” Wladimir in terms of size and his ability to jab with power. Wladimir has a slight height advantage of a little less than two inches, but they’re both basically the same in the jab department.
IBF cruiserweight champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez (29-1, 14 KOs) successfully defended his title tonight in defeating 43-year-old former WBA cruiserweight champion Firat Arslan (34-8-2, 21 KOs) by a 12 round split decision at the Messehalle, Erfurt, Thüringen, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 115-113, 116-113 for Hernandez and 115-113 for Arslan.
Later tonight, IBF cruiserweight champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez (28-1, 14 KOs) will be defending his title against 43-year-old fringe contender Firat Arslan (34-7-2, 21 KOs) at the Messehalle, Erfurt, Thüringen, Germany.
The fight was halted at the start of the round due to a cut that Khomitsky had suffered on his head from what appeared to be a head-butt from the numerous clinches that Stieglitz had initiated in the fight. The referee ruled the cut caused by a punch though and that gave Stieglitz the advantage.
Khomitsky was the more powerful puncher of the two by far, as he nailed Stieglitz with hard hooks to the head in the first could of rounds each time he could get within punching distance.
Tonight former WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (46-4, 26 KOs) has a very tough test on his hands in facing #7 WBO Sergey Khomitsky (29-10-2, 12 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout at the Anhalt Arena, Dessau, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany.
Stieglitz is still reeling from having lost his WBO strap in his last fight against Arthur Abraham four months ago in July in losing a 12 round split decision. Stieglitz wants another chance against Abraham to try and regain his WBO strap, but for that fight to happen, Stieglitz needs to beat Khomitsky tonight and possibly Gilberto Ramirez if the WBO forces him to fight in a WBO eliminator bout before he can fight Abraham again.
Bulgarian heavyweight Kubrat Pulev (20-0, 11 KO’s) believes that he’s got the talent to beat IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (62-3, 52 KO’s) and take away all of his 4 world titles in their fight on September 6th at the O2 World Arena, Altona, in Hamburg, Germany.
While the 33-year-old Pulev hasn’t fought anyone good enough to give you any kind of indication that he’ll be able to beat Wladimir, he still comes across like someone who is dead certain that he’s going to be victorious over the 38-year-old Ukrainian.