After Juan Carlos Gomez’ WBC heavyweight championship clash with Vitali Klitschko on March 21st and WBA interim featherweight champion Yuriorkis “El Ciclon” Gamboa winning his first world title on April 17th the next ARENA-star might get the chance to fight for gold pretty soon. Rising middleweight star Mahir Oral might be a possible opponent for WBA champion Felix Sturm who defended his belt against chanceless Koji Sato last Saturday..
Apparently Sturm and his promoter are looking for their next opponent for a great show at famous Formula 1 “Nürburgring” on July 11th. But neither mandatory challenger Anthony Mundine (who will fight Daniel Geale on May 27th) nor the other champions Arthur Abraham (defends his IBF crown against Giovanni Lorenzo next) and Kelly Pavlik (faces Sergio Mora for the WBO / WBC title) are available.
ARENA-CEO Ahmet Öner: “Before Universum searches the whole world to bring in somebody who doesn’t stand a chance they should check their neighbourhood. Mahir Oral is always ready to fight Sturm and he will definitely not step into the ring just to receive a thrashing and say ‘Thank you for your hospitality’.”
WBC #3, WBA #8, WBO #12 and IBF #14 Oral is currently preparing for a WBC international championship bout on June 26th against strong Russian prospect Dmitry Pirog. “This promises to be a great fight”, states Öner. “But if we get the chance to fight for a world title we will at least listen to their offer. Fact is however that we don’t need to rush things with Mahir. We don’t have to fight Sturm now. We can wait until Mahir is mandatory challenger. Still if they are looking for an opponent for July 11th I think Mahir would be a very good option. Two Germans fighting for the world title at “Nürburgring”… I am sure that this would be a fight that would live up to high expectations at this spectacular setting.”
“Of course, I am ready to go for a world championship fight”, says “The Lion” Oral. “I know Felix from sparring sessions. He is a good boxer and physically always at one hundred percent. But that counts for me as well. I am sure that I got what it takes to beat him and win the title.”
Baltic Boxing Union news
Baltic Boxing Union title fights
BBU Light Welterweight title: On the 4th April there was a fight for vacant BBU Light Welterweight championship title between Finnish Jaakko Myllylä and Russian Andrey Devyataykin. These two boxers made a well-paced 8 rounds fight in front of approximately 400 spectators. Younger Myllylä was a bit in command most rounds but very experienced former Russian Lightweight champion Devyataykin was a game opponent for Myllylä with his difficult style. After a close opening round Myllylä was following rounds a bit sharper than his opponent until Devyataykin made his best performance during the middle rounds. Finally Myllylä confirmed his victory with some good punches and by being more active in late rounds. Late of the last round cash of heads opened a cut in Myllylä´s upper part of forehead but it was too late to help Devyataykin to turn the fight back for him. The new new champion with scores 80-72, 78-75, 78-77 is Jaakko Myllylä . With the victory Myllylä improved to 8 (2 KO) – 0 – 0.
BBU International Light Welterweight title: On the 18th April at Lublin Poland there was a combined amateur and professional boxing show with the main event for vacant BBU International Light Welterweight title between #15 ranked Lukasz Maciec (POL) and #18 ranked Konstantins Sakara (LAT). Lublin based young and talented Maciec was in control in this fight but durable and more experienced Sakara gave a good opponent in every round, but it was too little to stop Maciec to keep his undefeated record. With unanimous decision victory Maciec took his pro career´s first title. With the victory Maciec improved to 6 (2 KO) – 0 – 0.
BBU Middleweight title: On the 24th April at Jaroslaw Poland there was a pro boxing show promoted by O´Chikara Gmitruk Team. At the co-main event Mariusz Cendrowski (reigning BBU International Middleweight champion and #1 ranked challenger for BBU title) fought against Finnish veteran Kai Kauramäki. After Cendrowski had taken early rounds, “Ironman” Kauramäki started to press more his Polish opponent. When the eight and last round was starting Cendrowski (now 17 (7 KO) – 2 – 1)was closely ahead on points. The durable and well-fit Finnish warrior was although able still to press more and when Cendrowski injured his elbow, Kauramäki was ruled to get victory over his well-merited opponent by TKO. With the victory, which are recognized as a slight upset, Kauramäki improved to 15 (5 KO) – 15 – 0.
BBU Welterweight title: There is an upcoming bout for vacant BBU Welterweight title scheduled for 8 rounds. The fight will take place at Moscow, Russia on the 30th April. The home boxer to compete for vacant title is Russian Roman Seliverstov who is currently ranked #2 at BBU Baltic Rankings. The another challenger is still TBA.
Other BBU news:
* The co-operation between BBU and WBF has ended on early March. The BBU Board has made the decision to end the co-operation with Australian-based World Boxing Foundation, WBF. Also WBF has agreed the decision. No drama included in this from either parties. After the change Baltic Boxing Union will continue its own way to develop Baltic area´s professional boxing.
* BBU Baltic Rankings has been published on early April. That ranking contains all those boxers who are eligible to participate in BBU Championship Bout. Boxers who are not ranked BBU Baltic Rankings but are among top European rankings do automatically have the right to make a challenge for BBU championship title. To check out the Ranking situation on April, please visit at http://balticboxingunion.com/champions.php .
* When publishing BBU Baltic Rankings as the main condition to be allowed to fight for BBU title, BBU Board has updated also some rules. The most important changes are: no more absolutely needed to have six (6) fights on boxer´s record to be alowe to fight for BBU title fight also such boxers who are licenced by some official national federation at BBU area can be listed at BBU Baltic Rankings and that way to participate in BBU title fights BBU International title fight can be scheduled either six (6) or eight (8) rounds Mandatory defense action for BBU Champions against #1 challenger or highest ranked available opponent at BBU Baltic Rankings after a successful voluntary title defense
Situation of BBU titles:
BBU champions
Heavyweight: Juho Haapoja (FIN) 9 (7 KO) – 2 – 1
Light Heavyweight: Gregory Soszynski (POL) 14 (7 KO) – 0 – 1
Middleweight: Kai Kauramäki (FIN) 15 (15 KO) – 15 – 0
Welterweight: Upcoming bout, Roman Seliverstov (RUS) – TBA, 30.04.2009 Moscow, Russia
Light Welterweigt: Jaakko Myllylä (FIN) 8 (2 KO) – 0 – 0
Lightweight: Matt Zegan (Pol) 38 (21 KO) – 4 – 0
Lightweight (Interim champion): Krzysztof Cieslak (POL) 10 (2 KO) – 0 – 0
BBU International champion
Middleweight: Mariusz Cendrowski (Pol) 17 (7 KO) – 2 – 1
Light Welterweight: Lukasz Maciec (POL) 6 (2 KO) – 0 – 0
How to contact BBU:
Please remember that Baltic Boxing Union is always looking for new co-operation partners from our working area at Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia. As known our title fights are cheap, reliable and easy to arrange and they will always give significant experience for boxers and also a new boost for champion´s career.
If you are interested to get either BBU Championship title fight (8 or 10 rounds) or BBU International Championship fight (6 or 8 rounds) to give more meaning for your show or if you are interested to know how your boxer can challenge the reigning BBU champion please visit our web pages at (www.balticboxingunion.com) for more information and contact BBU Board
McGee – Follmar Was A Classic “Date With Destiny”
April 28 (Merrillville, In) – The ground floor of the Hammond Civic Center shook when two of the world’s best woman’s fighters made their entrances and the thousands in attendance for the “Date With Destiny” World Championship Main Event rose to their feet and exploded, but it only got louder when the bell rang and an instant classic was born.
“Merciless” Mary McGee (17-0, 10 KOs) vs. Kristy “Rose” Follmar (16-2, 9 KOs) put the world of boxing on notice with their spine-tingling 10-round Main Event bout for the vacant WBC International Super Lightweight World Championship and McGee’s NABC Lightweight World Championship, as McGee brought her second world title back home to Gary, Indiana with a legendary majority decision with the scorecards reading 95-95, 97-93 and 97-93.
Before Jill Diamond, Supervisor of the WBC, could put the WBC International Super Lightweight World Championship around the waist of McGee, the young 22 year-old phenomenon fell to the ground with pure joy with Follmar coming over to congratulate the newly crowned champ.
“It was so amazing and I couldn’t believe it, so that is why I fell to my knees in the ring,” said McGee of her instant reaction to the decision. “The expectations were so high and I can’t even explain the feeling of being crowned the champion.”
“Simply put, one of the greatest fights I have ever had the pleasure of seeing and these two world class fighters gave everyone what they came to see,” said Octavius James, C.E.O. of One In A Million Inc. “Mary showed that she is one of the most dominant fighters in the world in her weight class, But Kristy definitely was equally as impressive in my view.” James said.
Another dream came true for heavyweight “Big” Ty Ortiz (1-0, 1 KOs) as he defeated Justin Sule (1-1, 0 KOs) by 1st round TKO (2:16) in his professional debut. “Iron” Orphius Waite (5-0, 3 KOs) stayed unbeaten with his six-round Co-Main Event decision over Cedric Johnson (10-4, 8 KOs) with all three scorecards all reading 58-55.
Ed “2 Fast 2 Furious” Ochoa (8-0, 8 KOs) delivered one of his biggest knockouts to date with a bruising 1st round knockout (2:10) of Christopher Hill (4-22-2, 2 KOs). Josh Crouch (4-0, 4 KOs) also stayed undefeated with a 3rd round TKO (0:01) over Jeremie Parks (0-9-1, 0 KOs), while Angel Hernandez (11-3, 10 KOs) looked incredible in his 1st round TKO (2:34) against Gustavo Palacios (2-6, 1KOs).