28.05.06 – By Per Ake Persson: Mario Veit displayed a career best performance in beating stablemate Juergen Brahmer and winning the WBC Int´l title last night in Munich. Veit was at one time a well protected dull boxer, who was built into a 30-0 record before being wasted by Joe Calzaghe in 1:57 of the very first round in 2001. It took a year and a change of trainer from Torsten Schmitz to Fritz Sdunek before a “new” fighter emerged when Mario took apart Malik Dziarra late 2002. He then won the WBO interim title but was again beaten by Joe Calzaghe last year but again picked up the pieces and scored a big upset yesterday..
It was a fight he wasn´t supposed to win but he did so in style surviving a first round knockdown and a nasty cut in the later rounds.
Next big Universum “eliminator” appears to be on for July 29 in Oberhausen when WBO 175 lb champ Zsolt Erdei takes on Thomas Ulrich.
Fabian Weber, webmaster for boxing.de and PR man for Universum, has been laid off from the position he´s held since 1998. According to a Hamburg newspaper there could be a courtcase in the matter. Part of the firing of Weber is due to a downsizing of the company. Also leaving Universum is Chuck Talhami, who´s helped train fighters in the huge stable. Talhami was at one time head coach in Universum but took a lot of heat after Dariusz Michalczewski´s dubious win over Graciano Rocchigiani in 96 and left. Years later he was brought back to help the coaches and boxers to adapt to the American way of fighting. Talhami also helped the stable of now defunct Modern Sports & Events in Scandinavia.
Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez outscored Romanian Vasile Surcica May 26 on the Spanish island of Ibiza. Surcica came in on a few hours notice and the fight, supposed to be a defence of “Maravilla`s” WBC Latin jr middle title, went on at 160. On the undercard Spanish bantam Karim Quibir scored a good win in outpointing Italian Massimo Morra.
IBF heavy champ Wladimir Klitschko states to klitschko.com that his next fight will take place in October in the US. Wladimir hopes for a fight at Madison Square Garden in NYC in October perhaps against the winner of Brock vs Timur Ibragimov.
Ex-WBO middle champ Armand Krajnc is – again – thinking about coming back. Krajnc have of recently worked hard in the gym and is down to supermiddle. Armand was last seen losing to Sven Ottke in March of 04.
Various Swedish media reports that female supermiddle Aasa Sandell, now based in NYC and inactive since losing to Laila Ali in December of last year, will return to action in June. Sandell´s loss to Ali made her an instant star in Swedish media but it hasn´t generated much more than hefty headlines.