European Boxing News: Braekhus, Boystov, Ibragimov, Magee, Rahman, Mormeck

Sauerland´s First Lady, WBA, WBC and WBO welter queen Cecilia Braekhus defends her titles against Mikaela Lauren from Sweden October 30 in Rostock on the undercard to Sylvester vs Oral.

Lauren, a former elite swimmer, is 6-0 and relatively new to boxing but is very strong and well conditioned so Cecilia will get a hard night´s work before most likely retaining her titles.

Highly ranked Russian heavy Dennis Boytsov is still nursing a sore right hand and thus had to decline an offer to fight in the IBF tourney.

Newly crowned NABA heavyweight champ Timur Ibragimov is in Stockholm, Sweden, to train and spar with European Union challenger Attila Levin. Ibragimov´s career has taken off during 2010 and he has nine wins since losing to Tony Thompson back in 2007.

Hassan N´Dam vs Avtandil Khurtside is on for Paris October 30 and it´s a good matchup but there seems to be still confusion for which WBA middleweight title it´s for. Some say it´s for the vacant WBA regular crown while other sources says it´s been reduced to an interim title with Gennadyi Golovkin now declared regular champ.

Brian Magee has relinquished the European super middleweight title to concentrate on bigger things. Magee seems like a likely challenger for WBA king Dimitri Sartison – so likely that Boxing News recently wrote that Magee had turned down a chance to participate in the Super Six tournament. Magee´s mandatory challenger, unbeaten Ukrainian Stas Kashtanov will now face the highest available contender for the vacant title.

It appears that Hasim Rahman will fight Jean Marc Mormeck in Paris December 2. It depends a little on how you count but some claims Rahman is the first heavyweight champ (former or present) to fight in France since the days of Jack Johnson. Mormeck, a fomer cruiser title holder, is on the trail of David Haye but may have left it too late.

Bulgarian heavyweight star Kubrat Pulev, 8-0, is moved fast by Sauerland Event and October 30 in Rostock on the undercard to Sylvester vs Oral he fights no other than Dominick Guinn. Guinn has much more experience but Pulev is one to watch. He´s been with the Sauerland team since his amateur days and is ready for bigger things already after eight pro fights.

Russian heavy Aleksander Povetkin will indeed fight both October 16 in Russia and October 30 in Germany. Povetkin is still trained by Teddy Atlas and is now trying to get back in the picture after losing his position under what we might call confusing circumstances.

WBO super middle champ Robert Stieglitz defends the title November 20 in Dresden on a show promoted by SES and their new partner Sportfive. Opponent is to be announced.

European Union junior welter champ Ville Piispanen defends the title against Spaniard Daniel Rasilla, national champ, on the big Froch vs Abraham show in Helsinki November 27. Rasilla, 18-3, fought for the European title last year on two days notice but lost to Paul McCloskey. Also on the bill is lightweight Edis Tatli, super middle Niko Jokinen, heavyweight Edmund Gerber and light heavy Artur Hein.

Konstantin Airich and Yakup Saglam clash for the PABA heavyweight title November 12 in Stralsund. The title is almost vacant with injured Russian Denis Bakhtov declared “champion in recess”. Arena Box Promotion promotes and also have IBF Intercontinental middleweight champ Benjamin Simon defending the title against fellow German Marco Schulze.