Krasniqi must walk through fire to get world title shot

23.05.05 – It’s ten years ago since a German fought for the heavyweight world championship for the last time. Axel Schulz (Frankfurt/Oder) challenged boxing grandpa George Foreman in Las Vegas on April 22, 1995, dropped a twelve-round decision but got the chance to fight for the title once more in the same year at Stuttgart’s Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle.. He lost again when he was outscored by South Africa’s Frans Botha. One year later Schulz lost his third world title fight to Michael Moorer.

However, things shall turn out differently in the case of German Luan Krasniqi who for many years is on a long-time course in direction to a world championship. At present the reigning European champion and Olympic bronze medal winner of 1996 is closer than ever to his first world title fight in his ninth year as a professional boxer.

He faces American Lance Whitaker on May 28 in Stuttgart’s Schleyerhalle in an official WBO world title eliminator. The winner of this duel will fight champion Lamon Brewster later this year.

This means Luan Krasniqi’s direct path is set to become the successor of Max Schmeling (1905 – 2005), still the only German who ever became heavyweight champion of the world.

Krasniqi now “only” has to walk down the short end of the path. This walk would start with a win over Lance Whitaker and would end with a victory over Lamon Brewster.

On the face this path looks short. But Krasniqi will meet more than stiff resistance on his way. Before the most important fight of his career the 33-year-old German has to be prepared for extreme things inside and outside the ring. In order to verbally intimidate the fighter from Hamburg his American challenger hired Mike Tyson’s notorious pseudo military speaker Steve “Crocodile” Fitch.

“The spectators should not come a second too late. Lance will knock out the German quickly and mercilessly. He will win more spectacular than Mike Tyson because he’s much larger and stronger than Mike. He will kill him”, Fitch shouted on the press conference in Stuttgart.

Krasniqi countered the ostentatious shouting of the American team calm and self-confident: “I’m the number one in Europe and my fans can be sure that I will hold on to this position. Whitaker will experience a big surprise on Saturday.”

With his offensive screaming Fitch already provided several incidents during his ten-year co-operation with former world champion Mike Tyson up to summer 2002. In January 1999 the self-styled “Master Motivator” appeared on a press conference for Tyson’s fight against Frans Botha dressed in camouflage suit and with military boots. The 49-year-old put on a highly noisy act until the security team carried him out in handcuffs.

The winner of the fight between Krasniqi, 27-1-1 (13), and Whitaker, 29-2-1 (24), will face Brewster, conqueror of former champion Wladimir Klitschko. The current WBO champion just defended his title last Saturday with a spectacular first round knockout over Polish Andrew Golota.

Whitaker, who trained three months in Fort Lauderdale in the State of Florida, is ranked number one by the WBO. Krasniqi, who prepares in his hometown Rottweil in Germany together with coach Torsten Schmitz, is ranked second.

The undercard of Stuttgart includes two woman world championships. Silke Weickenmeier from Speyer defends her GBU title at jr. featherweight against the Japanese Miki Kikukawa. Alesia Graf from Stuttgart will get her first world title shot when she takes on American Alicia Ashley in a contest for the GBU title at bantamweight.

Former WBC cruiserweight champion Juan Carlo Gomez is fighting Brazilian Jorge Arias at heavyweight. Gomez, one of the best stylists world-wide, wants to reenter the top-10 as quickly as possible in an attempt to get a world title shot at heavyweight.

Public Workout, presented by Radio ENERGY:
Wednesday, May 25, 15:00, Galeria Kaufhof, Königstraße 6.

Official Weigh-in:
Friday, May 27, 15:00, Restaurant Mash, Bosch-Areal, Forststraße 7