By Per Ake Persson

The White Buffalo, Francois Botha, retained the WBF heavyweight title with a split decision over twelve hard fought, messy, mauling and exciting rounds of boxing against Timo Hoffmann on this SES show at Boerdeland Hall in Magdeburg.

It was scored 117-110 and 114-113 for Botha and 114-113 for Hoffmann. After ten, Hoffmann was a champion on two cards but the so called "German Oak" fell in the eleventh and could well have been stopped in the last round as he, totally spent, hung on to Botha with a friendly referee in Dutchman Robert Verwijs giving him a lot of breaks. More...

A good weekend of Continental boxing featured three European title fights and we kick off this report at Spodek, the largest indoor arena in Poland in the southern city of Katowice.

European Welterweight Champion Rafal "Braveheart" Jackiewicz, 33-8-1 (18), continued his amazing career transformation with a successful title defense against previously undefeated European Union, German and IBF Intercontinental titlist Jan Zaveck, 25-1 (14).

But it wasn't easy as the confident Slovenian challenger came to win and Jackiewicz had his hands full before pulling out a hard-fought split decision victory after twelve difficult rounds.

Jackiewicz's record stood at 12-7-1 (7) at the end of 2004 after having been thrown in with more experienced opponents such as Antonio Lauri, Ted Bami, Yuri Nuzhnenko, Michael Jennings and Jacek Bieleski but then the Minsk Mazowiecki born hard man went on a tear, going 19-1, losing only to excellent Italian boxer Giammario Grassellini by majority decision.

This earned Jackiewicz a shot at European Champ Jackson Osei Bonsu, a murderous puncher who was on the verge of a WBC title shot. Jackiewicz drew on his long experience to keep Bonsu off balance and expose holes in the Belgian's defense to pull out a tough points decision. More...

By Per Ake Persson

Newly crowned European Heavyweight Champion Sinan Samil Sam has relinquished the title rather than go through with a rematch against Italian Paolo Vidoz. It will now be Vidoz vs. British fighter Matt Skelton for the vacant title. Deadline for purse bids or agreement is noon on September 8. More...

At the weigh-in yesterday in Halle, Germany, WBA Middleweight Champion Felix Sturm measured up with challenger Randy Griffin of America ahead of their rematch tonight at Gerry Weber Stadium.

Both men looked perfectly fit and trim but I give the weighin procedure on points to Griffin, who came in at 72.4 kg / 159.5 lb with a very confident look about him. More...

By Per Ake Persson

European Welterweight Champion Jackson Osei Bonsu´s defence of the title against Slovenian Jan Zaveck on July 26 in Maribor is postponed until late September as Zaveck suffer from a back injury. Jackson is also booked to headline a show at the Lotto Arena in Antwerp on November 11. More...