Hersisia: Uriah Grant not coming to Curacao

HERSISIA NOW AIMS FOR NETHERLANDS KINGDOM CROWN!

Manager Olaf Schroeder was close to throwing the towel and ordering his WBF heavyweight champion Richel Hersisia, who already arrived on his birth island of Curacao last week with trainer Mourad Louati, back to Holland when the local promoter, ex-fighter Ivan Conradus, informed the Fight Production head that, after all, he can’t deliver former cruiserweight ‘world’ champion Uriah Grant as the opponent for the undefeated Hersisia as contracted.

However, after hard work behind the scenes, Schroeder, like a magician finding a rabbit in a hat, managed to save the show with the help of NBB secretary Rinze van der Meer. The manager secured the services of current Hungarian heavyweight champion Zoltan Petranyi, 11-11 (5), who will now oppose the Dutchman in the Caribbean with the vacant heavyweight championship of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on the line (Petranyi being eligible to contest that title because of no other co-challengers available, but he can’t win the title himself).

Given that Hersisia already won the Dutch and WBA Central American titles on his way to the WBF ‘world’ crown, this could be seen as a backward step, but manager Schroeder counters: “At least Richel can put another feather in his hat and it has always been his dream to clean up his own doorstep, so to speak. It’s a massive disappointment as we had hoped to fight a former ‘world’ champion in Grant, but as it is not happening now, this is the next best solution at such a short notice.”

Petranyi had an up-and-down career until he took two and a half years off between 1999 and 2002. He returned to the scene with a stunning result in March ’02 when he scored a great upset over the previously unbeaten Ukrainian Vitalij Natiosow and that was the start of a winning run that currently stands at 4-0 and culminated in a 10-round decision win for the vacant Hungarian heavyweight title in August of this year. Were he to pull off another upset over Hersisia, the unlikely transformation from journeyman to serious European contender would be complete.