Per Ake Persson: WBA middle champ Felix Sturm retained the title tonight in Duesseldorf with a seventh round tko win over brave but outclassed Australian challenger Jamie Pittman. The fight was stopped with the challenger, right eye shut and cut, down from a right uppercut, right hand and then a left as Sturm poured it on. Pittman made a good, aggressive start to the fight but couldn´t keep the pace up, nor score effectively..
Sturm showed good defence, picked his shots and was by the third round well in command. In the second Pittman´s right eye began to swell after a right hand from Sturm. A clash of heads in the third made it worse and a cut opened. Pittman bravely fought on but Sturm, a lot more agressive than usual, upped the pace and finally floored the challenger in the fifth with a left hook to the body. Jamie got up, fought on and tried hard but had little left as Sturm followed up and floored Pittman in the sxith as well. Earlier in the evening Jurgen Brahmer, at lightheavy, stopped Frenchman Karim Bennama in the ninth of a non-title ten-rounder.
In Vaasa, Finland, tonight, heavyweight Juho Haapoja beat Russian Daniel Peret to win the vacant BBU title. Steel Ring promoted.
Former IBF welter champ Michele Piccirillo, who was last seen challenging WBC ruler at jr middle Vernon Forrest, plans to continue his career and fights on the undercard to Lynes vs Branco May 16 in Milano.
Lightweights Hoang Sang Nguyen and Nico Salzmann clash for the vacant WBC Mediterranean title April 18 in Palma de Mallorca. Nguyen is based in Spain while Salzmann fights out of Germany but hails from Bosnia.
Universum still won´t confirm any opponent for WBA cruiser king Firat Arslan May 3 in Stuttgart but heavyweight Aleksander Dimitrenko will face Derrick Roddy.
First Vladimir Virchis and then the Klitschkos says WBC # 2 heavy Juan Carlos Gomez, who now resides in Los Angeles. But the Virchis fight is not until September so there is plenty of time to kill.
EBU middle champ Sebastian Sylvester believe his chances against Spanish veteran Javier Castillejo are 55-45.
The Fernand Roelands Memorial May 1 in Bruges, Belgium, is headlined by lightweight Innocent, the Dutch / Nigerian BeNeLux champ, but also feature the comeback of 46-year old Freddy Demeulenaere, at one time a very tough journeyman. Freddy, 39-35-8, last came back in 2001 but ended his active career back in 99. He has since remained in boxing as a trainer.
Danish promoter Anders Vester returned Friday night with a combined pro/am/music event. Son Allan beat ABU welter champ Hassan Saku on points so sportingly all went well but the low turnout on this off TV event led to financial loss for A V Sportevents.
Veronica Michael´s show at the Blue Horizon in Phila, PA, feature the prodebut of promoter and decent heavy Anders Holmber from Karlstad, Sweden. Holmberg is one of the owners of Pugnus Boxing Promotion. Headlining the show is Joey Abell, nicknamed “Swedish Joey” or “Minnesota Ice”. Abell´s grandfather hailed from Sweden and Joey have been to Sweden three times by now fighting one opponent easier than the other.