Weigh-in Results: Felix Sturm 159.1 – Khoren Gevor 159.6 l Sebastian Zbik 159.6 – Domenico Spada 159.6
Gennady Golovkin 159.6 – John Anderson Carvalho 158.5 l Christian Hammer 251.5 -Jevgenijs Stammburskis 208.3
Sports fans can expect a special weekend when “Boxing meets Formula 1” at the famous Nürburgring Speedway on July 11.. It will be “The Night of the Middleweights” the evening before the German Grand Prix in the new ring°arena. Two middleweight world championships will be featured in this boxing highlight of 2009 and the legendary race track Nürburgring. It will be the first time that these two sports will cooperate within an event.
Headlining the event will be WBA world champion Felix Sturm (32-2-1, 14 KOs). After his great wins in the past years against his mandatory challengers Randy Griffin and Sebastian Sylvester, the Universum boxer Felix Sturm is certainly one of the best fighters within the middleweight division at the moment. Sturm is coming off a 7th round stoppage over Japanese contender Koji Sato last month on April 25th in Krefeld. Just 77 days after his previous fight he will return to the ring against his stablemate of Universum Box-Promotion Khoren Gevor.
The reigning European champion Khoren Gevor (30-3, 16 KOs) is currently rated WBA # 2 with good positioning at the IBF and WBO. It has been announced that the WBA/WBO #2 rated Gevor will be recognized as the WBA’s mandatory challenger.
The fighters met on Monday during a press conference in the Tower Lounge over the Grand Prix paddock. Felix Sturm stated: „This is a special place where a special fight will take place. I am prepared. Khoren is not the WBA mandatory challenger for nothing. We know that very well. But I have a strong team behind me that has prepared me well. I’ve boxed now three times with the mandatory challenger of my association within a year. We are very concentrated and focused for Saturday.“
Khoren Gevor said: „This fight will be decided by the psyche. Whoever has the better one will win. We are both about the same strength and have similar knockout rates. In my last fight in Finland, I silenced an arena with 9000 spectators. On Saturday things will hopefully again be very quiet.“
In his most spectacular fight he was knocked out by Arthur Abraham in the 11th round in August 2007 in a fight for the IBF title. However, Gevor recently defeated Amin Asikainen in his hometown of Helsinki by a 7th round TKO in November 2008 to claim the European middleweight belt.
Once again, superstar Universum trainers Michael Timm and Fritz Sdunek will be in opposite corners. Michael Timm: „Felix prepared with me at the Sportschule Hennef. One sees over and over again how much Felix can summon up if he has his rest and the right environment. We are very well prepared. As before every fight, we have something special in the tactical area. Everyone will see that on Saturday.“
Gevor-Trainer Fritz Sdunek: „Naturally we’re in the outsider role – Felix is a good champion. But we also have a chance. We aren’t here simply as an opponent. We absolutely want to take this world championship belt, even if I don’t like these kinds of stall duels. But Khoren is now the mandatory challenger.“
Sebastian Zbik prior his biggest challenge against Domenico Spada
The second highlight of the night will feature the Mecklenburger Sebastian Zbik (27) who wants to make his dream come true when he fights for the interims world title of the WBC. The currently unbeaten WBC # 2 rated middleweight challenges the WBC #1 rated Domenico Spada. If he wins the reigning WBC/ WBO world champion Kelly Pavlik could feel the breathe of German fighters in his neck as there already the German champions Felix Sturm (WBA world champion) and Arthur Abraham (IBF world champion) in the middleweight division.
After his spectacular knockout win and successful defence of his WBO interconti belt against the Spaniard Ruben Varon the spotlight fighter Sebastian Zbik (26-0, 10 KOs) is now ready for bigger challenges and ready for this world title fight. His opponent, the 28 year old Domenico „Vulcano“ Spada (29-1, 14 KOs) of Rome in Italy, has only lost one of his 30 fights. Both contenders also met at the press conference. Sebastian Zbik: „If you see his fight record, then you know how strong he is. He’s the WBC #1. This is a very hard assignment. But I’m confident I’ll succeed. If I win, I’d like a visit to the Formula 1 race on Sunday as a reward. For me, this is quite a special atmosphere here. I’m a big motorsports fan.“ Domenico Spada said about his German opponent: „I’ve seen in many videos that he’s a very clean and technically accomplished boxer. I like that.“
Trainer Fritz Sdunek: „In his recent fights, Sebastian has shown how much he has grown in the ring. He earned this opportunity and would like to take advantage of it.“
Gennady Golovkin faces John Anderson Carvalho
The „Night of the Middleweights“ at the Nürburgring will feature another middleweight collusion: Gennady „Mr. Merciless“ Golovkin, the Shooting-Star of the spotlight boxing team and WBO #4, will be facing the Brazilian John Anderson Carvalho in a fight for the WBO Intercontinental belt. The Hamburg based Gennady Golovkin will be the third middleweight to be featured at the „Green Hell”. Golovkin, who has a fantastic knockout rate for a middleweight (16 victories with 13 KOs) is currently rated #3 at the WBC and WBA and he will have his first title bout at this huge “Universum Champions Night” at the Nürburgring. He faces the Brazilian WBO# 15 John Anderson Carvalho (18-3-1, 11 KOs) for the WBO Intercontinental title.
Also WBA #1 super middleweight Gusmyl Perdomo (16-2, 10 KOs) faces Jose Ubarnes (10-14, 4 KOs) in preparation for an eventual showdown with WBA champ Mikkel Kessler.
In all, fight fans in Nürburg will get to see seven fights. Other bouts feature heavyweight Christian Hammer (2-1, 1 KO) against Jevgenijs Stamburskis (5-21), unbeaten light heavyweight “Prince“ Patrick Dobroschi (10-0) against Yoann Bloyer (7-6-1), and light heavyweight Gregory Soszynski (15-0-1, 7 KOs) against Karim Bennama (17-12-2, 4 KOs).
The ZDF will televise from 10:30 pm live. The highlights can be seen on Sunday at www.boxing.de.
Remaining tickets for this spectacular “Universum Champions Night” at the Nürburgring and tickets for the subsequent VIP Party (150 euros) are still available at the Universum Ticket Hotline: 040-696 559 59