07.01.04 – Having successfully warmed-up in the truest sense of the word, WBF superwelterweight champion Mihaly Kotai now looks forward to make the first defence of his ‘world’ title on January 31 in England, the country in which the Hungarian won the crown last June. After training in Los Angeles, the 27-year-old Magyar ventured to sunny Puerto Rico to blast Elias Cruz in round six on December 6 and reports to be well prepared to face his first challenger. Kotai’s record now stands at 26-1 with 13 knockouts and signs are that he has learned from his first career defeat, an upset 6-round decision loss to Zimbabwan Farai Musiyiwa. At the start of his career, Kotai won almost every fight by knockout, but prior to the Musiyiwa shock hadn’t scored a KO in over a year. Since then, the Hungarian star seems to have rediscovered his numbing power and has duly wiped both his last two opponents out of the ring. German manager Olaf Schroeder of Fight Production is currently in negotiations with Polish promoter Krzysztof Zbarski about Kotai’s inaugral challenger.
SCHROEDER WBB MATCHMAKER OF THE YEAR
Olaf Schroeder, head of German management/matchmaking company Fight Production, was recently named Matchmaker of the Year 2003 by the Texas-based World Boxing Board (WBB). Thomas J. Hoggan of El Paso, the WBB’s president, is planning to honour Schroeder soon in a public ceremony. “I am very pleased and happy to accept this award, but would at the same time like to thank all the boxers that I worked with in WBB championship bouts,” said Schroeder, who was instrumental in the staging of many WBB title fights in Germany and abroad, that gave smaller promoters the opportunity to present championship boxing. It is not the first such award that Schroeder received: In 1999, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) named him European Matchmaker of the Year.
HINTEREGGER YEARNING TO PROVE HIMSELF
Austrian champion Gotthard Hinteregger has hinted that 2004 could be his last year in boxing. The 36-year-old superwelterweight last year scored two victories under the Fight Production banner to bring his overall record to a respectable 23-6-1 (12), however he habitually fell short in his career when trying to step up the competition. “I want one more chance at an international title and I don’t care what I have to do to get it,” says the man nicknamed ‘The Cougar’ and reasoned: “The first steps with a new trainer and a new management were positive, so obviously I want to test myself now at a higher level.”