Per Ake Persson: December 1 Berlin, Germany: Ex-WBA middle champ Felix Sturm came in at 159,5 lbs /72,4 kg for tomorrow´s non-title ten rounder against Australian Gavin Topp, 159,75 / 72,5, that headlines Universum´s show at the Estrel Congress Center in Berlin. Current WBA 160 lb champ, Javier “El Lince de Parla” Castillejo weighed in at 159,5 / 72,3 as did his opponent, Mariano Natalio “Adrenalina” Carrera. Should both Sturm and Castillejo win the rematch could reportedly be on for March of next year..
WIBF feather champ Ina Menzer came in bang on the limit while her opponent Kasha “the Fighting Marine” Chamblin weighed in fully clothed at 123,5 lbs. Pick of the undercard is a clash at cruiser between exellent Russian prospect Aleksander Alekseev, 199 lbs, against British veteran Lee Swaby, 202,75 lbs.
News:
Sauerland Event won´t appeal the decision by the Martial Arts Delegation in Sweden that turned down their application to promote a show in Stockholm January 20 of 2007. Instead, Sauerland will stage a big event in Basel, Switzerland, on the same date headlined by WBA heavy champ Nikolay Valuev.
On March 3, 2007, Sauerland will promote in Rostock, on the German Baltic coast, and that show might be headlined by EBU middle champ Amin Asikainen defending the title against Sebastian Sylvester.
Shortly after the Martial Arts Delegation had given their permission to New Sweden Boxing Promotion to stage a show Janaury 27 in Gothenburg they staged a press conference featuring ex-WBO middle champ Armand Krajnc, comebacking heavy Johan Thorbjornsson with female supermiddle Aasa Sandell interviewed in New York. The news that professional boxing was sort of back made big headlines in media. It´s fair to say that Austrian referee Josef Temml deserves a lot of credit for helping professional boxing here. He stepped in early and stopped Sandell against Laila Ali December 17 of last year in Berlin. Sandell, not very good to begin with, was tiring, under severe pressure and mr Temml did his job … moments later, once Aasa had recovered she got her hands in the air, the crowd cheered her and bood Ali. Swedish media made wartime headlines about how bravely Sandell had performed anda star was born.
Danish supermiddle Rudy Markussen is the mandatory challenger for EU champ, and stablemate in Team Palle, Lolenga Mock. Date and site is to be announced. Markussen is however not eased back by Team Palle after the disaster against Sergey Tatevosyan but takes on Belgian Djamel Selini on Palle´s December 15 show in Slagelse. Selini is what you might want to call a sleeper or a dark horse and should Rudy, who got all the talent and punch you can ask for, mess up again hewill be stopped.
Also on: Jagdar Abdulla vs Ervis Masha clash in a supporting bout to Martin Kristjansen vs Stefano Zoff for the vacant WBO I/C and EU 135 lb titles. Also on the bill are female bantam Anita Christensen, cruiser Johny Jensen, heavyweight Steffen Nielsen and Anders Hugger.
German welter Michel Trabant, still under suspension for testing positive for illegal substances, have switched from Universum to Sauerland Event. Trabant´s last fight was a stoppage win over Marco Cattikas where he retained the EU title. He then tested positive, was stripped of the title and suspended – but get this, contrary to what has been reported the´win over Catticas still stands as neither the German Federation nor the EBU have anything in their rules about changing results after events like this.
The growing team from Arena Box Promotion in Hamburg will be trained by Steven “Hollywood” Kuchler, the former amateur star who had his pro career cut short due to injuries. Joining the team this weekend is Cuban heavy Juan Carlos Gomez, who will begin final preparations for his comeback December 15 in Hamburg.