Dzinziruk: Sergey Dzinziruk, WBO jr middle champ but inactive since November 08, continues in Ukrainian media to claim his contract with Universum is over with but what does Universum say? Well, today Universum have for the first time commented on the case and confirms a contractual dispute but states that a court in Hamburg ruled in their favour already in November. Universum claims that planned fights in the US against Paul Williams and James Kirkland fell through due to a lack of interest from US TV and due to Dzinziruk´s financial demands. Universum do open the door for Dzinziruk to buy himself out of the contract.

 

Dzinziruk, an excellent amateur, turned pro with what was known as Panix Europe and was mainly fighting out of Poland but joined Universum in 03 after sitting out almost all of 02 due to promotional problems. He won the EBU title in 04 and the WBO crown in 05. His reign as champ have never been happy though and already in 07 there were rumors of contractual problems although he (or his opponent) officially was injured and he fought only once that year. In 08 he struggled against Lukas Konecny and Joel Julio, winning but was far from his true capacity. He's spent 09 looking for that big breakthrough fight in America.

 

Champions Night January 9: Edison Miranda is due to illness out as challenger for WBO super middle ruler Robert Stieglitz but the defence will go ahead against an opponent to be announced. On the bill are three heavyweight fights with Manuel Charr taking on Owen Beck, Dennis Boytsov facing Kevin Montiy and in an internal eliminator Markus Tomala square off against Christian Hammer. Ina Menzer takes on Ramona Kuehne in the co-featured bout and defends the WBC, WIBF and WBO titles at featherweight.