Latest Euro News
by Per Ake Persson
January 21, 2008
German supermiddle Danilo Haussler is
sidelined with an injury and the rematch against Cristian Sanavia is off or
at least postponed. Sanavia will still make a voluntary defence of the title
though and a very likely challenger is Dane Mads Larsen. Date and site to be
announced.
Italian all-time great Duilio Loi have passed away in Milan at the age of
79. Loi suffered from Alzheimer´s and spent his last years in a nursing
home. In his day Loi was Italian, European and World champion in a career
that lasted from 1948 through 1963. In 1960 he drew 60 000 fans to the San
Siro Stadium to watch him fight and beat Carlos Ortiz for the World title at
jr welter. Loi held the EBU title at lightweight, then relinquished the
title and moved up to welter where he also won the EBU title. All in all
Duilio Loi compiled an outstanding 116-3-7 record. He´s widely regarded as
one of the best fighters ever to come out of Europe. Loi was elected to the
Hall of Fame in 2005.
Former EBU supermiddle champ Devi Gogiya returns to action January 23 in
Barnaul, Russia. Gogiya face Dimitry Sukhotskiy in a scheduled
eight-rounder. Headlining are lightheavies Rudolf Asaturyan, a local
fighter, and Artem Vychkin, who square off for the national title, interim
version.
Nothing official from Universum yet but Hungarian media writes that WBO
lightheavy champ Zsolt Erdei will defend the title April 26.
Russian giant Evgeny Orlov is in Bulgaria sparring with Sergei Lyakhovich.
Orlov, who previously have been mainly active in K 1, sparred with then
future WBA heavy champ Ruslan Chagaev prior to his fight against Nikolay
Valuev and did it so well he got a contract with SES - not to mention that
Chagaev beat Valuev.
Former WBC lightheavy champ Tomasz Adamek, now a cruiser, will remain in
Poland although he´s promoted by Main Events. The plan is to have Adamek
fight O´Neil Bell in a IBF eliminator. Tomasz will not fight any tuneups
prior to this.
German paper Bild Zeitung wrote a few days ago that Aleksander Dimitrenko
priced himself out of the EBU titlefight against Luan Krasniqi that was set
for March 8. Krasniqi will continue training while the EBU find another
challenger - most ranked heavies in Europe are occupied elsewhere.
French jr middle Alban Mothie will defend the title March 14 in
Chatellerault against Sebastian Spengler. The winner will have to face
Damien Bertu, whom Mothie controversially outscored late last year to win
the title.
Source: This material is
provided by Boxing Press, and Per is the BP European Feature
Writer.
