European Boxing News: Zavek, Jackiewicz, Asikainen, Peret, Universum

By Per Ake Persson

IBF welter champ Jan Zaveck closed out sparring Thursday last week and is according to a press release from SES in top shape for his defence on Saturday in Ljubljana against Pole Rafael Jackiewicz.

The fight is billed as “A Question of Honor” and refers to their first fight, won by Jackiewicz on a controversial decision. Zaveck kept looking for the rematch for a long time and claimed Rafael avoided him – but with the world title in his hands the rematch materialized.

The show goes ahead at the 14,000-seater Park Sport Arena with live TV in Slovenia, Poland and Germany.

Finn Amin Asikainen will now take on hard punching Mexican Jaudiel Zepeda September 4 in Helsinki. Zepeda replace Francisco Mora, who had problems making the contracted weight.

Asikainen, now at super middle and with only three kilos to lose compared with eight he had to get rid of to make middleweight, is reported to look good in sparring.

Russian heavyweight, and one of the best journeymen in Europe, Daniel Peret, headlines a show at home in Murmansk September 25. Peret have over the years fought´em all.

Daniel is for now based in Kirkenes in the very north of Norway where he works in a fish factory and accepts all calls for fights on the road. On the same show in Murmansk in the nominal headliner cruiser Ali Ismailov defends the PABA title against Hungarian Joszef Nagy.

What went wrong for Universum? Tradepaper BoxSport had a couple of experts look into the subject.

One points to short lived success for female boxing when Regina Halmich was around, another to Universum´s support for Juergen Braehmer despite his legal problems while a third feels Universum had more quantity than quality in the their huge stable and a fourth feels Universum needed to take more risks in the matchmaking to get more even and interesting matchups.

In my eyes the collaboration with ZDF was largely successful but the network has followed a bad trend in continental Europe and left boxing behind.

Arena Box Promotion has signed up heavyweight Erkan Teiper, and he makes his pro debut on the Sturm vs Lorenzo show September 4 in Cologne. Teiper had a decent amateur career in Germany but no major international titles.