19.06.07 – By Per-Åke Persson: Big Timo Hoffmann, Sauerland Event´s resurrected heavy, fights Timur Ibragimov in the chief support to Asikainen vs Sylvester June 23 in Zwickau. Hoffmann looked finished when he lost to Paolo Vidoz in 2005 but another change in trainer – Timo have had many trainers during his long career – to Uwe Schuster made the big man come alive again. He beat stablemate Cengiz Koc in an internal “eliminator” and knocked out Konstantin Onofrei in his last bout.
Ibragimov comes in with two straight losses but those have been at higher level than Hoffmann have competed in for a long time so it will an interesting crossroads fight. For Denmark, Norway and Finland it´s a big boxing night with Mads Larsen, Thomas Hansvoll, Cecilia Braekhus and Amin Asikainen on the bill and the show is partly televised in all three countries.
It could well be that Hungarian heavy Zoltan Petranyi will be the opponent for comebacking – into proboxing that is – South African heavy Francois Botha July 6, writes profibox.hu.
Spanish middle Ruben Diaz takes on Georgian Levan Shonia for the vacant EBA title June 23 in Bilbao. The status of the EBA title is still unclear – it was formed in the ashes of the WBA Int´l title (not to be be confused with the Intercontinental crown) and works independently with none of the “world” title bodies backing it up.
Haken Sevecke, always cornerman for Sauerland´s fighters in Germany, promotes his annual charity show in Hattersheim, just outside of Frankfurt, July 21.
The arrest of Italian cruiser Pietro Aurino appears to be a part of a big crackdown by the police against members of organized crime. There were as of yesterday seven people arrested and eleven others indicted with more coming.
There were no purse bids today in Rome for EBU 175 lb champ Thomas Ulrich´s mandatory defence against Ukrainian Yuri Barashyan as the EBU gave the involved parties another week to negotiate.