01.03.07 – By Per Ake Persson: Universum have made it official: Reinstated WBA middleweight champion Javier Castillejo defends the title against ex-titleholder Felix Sturm April 28 in Oberhausen. In the co-feature WBA lightheavy ruler Silvio Branco squares off against Croatian Stipe Drews. WBA heavy champ Nikolai Valuev defends the title against Ruslan Chagaev at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart. Valeuv will arrive in Berlin on Sunday for sparring and final preparations..
Sauerland Event have announced that IBF middle champ Arthur Abraham will return to the ring at the end of April. Meanwhile, Abraham and Edison Miranda, whom King Arthur ouscored last year after a bloody, close and controversial encounter, continue their war in press releases.
EBU welter champ Jackson Osei Bonsu makes a voluntary defence against Italian Daniel Petrucca May 18 in Rome.
OPI 2000 might stage EBU 154 lb king Michele Piccirillo´s mandatory defence against Frenchman Husseyn Bayram sometime in May.
Norwegian superbantam Reidar Walstad could be fighting for the vacant EE-EU title May 4 in Helsinki reports Norwegian media.
Arena Box Promotion will introduce the three Cuban Olymic Gold Medallists – Yan Barthemely Varela, Yuriorkis Gamboa Toledano and Odlaner Solis Fonte – they signed up at a press conference in New York City next week. The three is then expected to go to Hamburg and be introduced in Germany at Arena´s March 9 gymshow.
Lightheavy Kai Kurzawa is still on for a fight for the vacant EU title but Frenchman Mohamed Bennema, who lost a decision to Aleksyi Kuziemsky Tuesday night in Cuxhaven is out. Kurzawa will now fight Italian Antonio Brancalion March 24 in Hamburg. Cruiser Pietro Aurino, last seen leaving the ring in his fight against Marco Huck under highly controversial circumstances, returns to the ring on the undercard on this show that is headlined by Domenico Spada´s defence of the WBC Int´l and EU middleweight titles against Mahir Oral.
The bad press for professional boxing in Sweden continues: Dagens Nyheter, Sweden´s biggest paper, reveals that one of the guys behind Innuendo, who were just given permission to do a combined thai / proboxing “light” show May 19 in Stockholm, have a criminal record and have even been charged for murder. Both the proboxing commission and the Martial Arts Delegation claimed in the permission for the May 19 show to have checked the company and the men behind it. When proboxing was prohibited in 1970 one of the reasons given where the “shady” business deals in the game. At the same time Innuendo have previously staged then perfectly legal K 1 shows in Stockholm and done very well (with the help of United Stage).