22.07.08 – by Sebastian Swiecznik: There is still no exact date or venue for the all German middleweight clash between WBA Champion Felix Sturm and #1 contender Sebastian Sylvester, but I think we don’t have to wait much longer than October. However there’s already bad blood between both guys. Sylvester has been calling out Sturm for the last two years and finally earned his shot by knocking out tough Ami Asikainen and former Sturm conqueror Javier Castillejo..
Anyhow, I think Sylvester stretched a point by making jokes about Sturms Bosnian origin and kept on provokingly calling him Adnan Catic (Sturm’s birth name) all the time. This fight got the potential to become a German classic, so I can’t wait for this one.
Russian giant Nikolai Valuev and John Ruiz will clash for the vacant WBA heavyweight title in Berlin on August 30. Sauerland Promotion just won the purse pid in Panama with a $2.100.000 offer. The first fight ended in a controversial decision. People felt that Ruiz was outboxing the giant for the large number of the rounds.
There was some talk about a mouth watering clash between Uiversum’s WBA super lightweight champion Andreas Kotelnik and hard hitting Marcos Maidana. The Argentinian Maidana looked very impressiv in his last outings, knocking out some durable opponents. But first Kotelnik has to overcome Norio Kimura (never heard of him) on September 13 in the Ukraine. After that a bout between him and Maidana is very likely to happen by the end of the year in Germany. You don’t wanna miss that one, I can guarantee you that there will be fireworks inside the ring.
Rumors say that WBO lightheavyweight champion Zsolt Erdei will defend his title against former super middleweight contender and stable mate Jürgen Brähmer in his next fight. For Brähmer, who was very impressiv in his first pro years until a three year jail time took very much out of his tank, this could be the last chance to capture a meaningful belt.