Boxing News Boxing News
Bad news for boxing fans in Stralsund for tomorrow’s “Battle at the Baltic Sea“. Unbeaten Turkish heavyweight Yakup Saglam (26-0) had to pull out of his PABA championship bout against German contender Konstantin Airich (16-2-2).
According to his trainer and manager Detlef Loritz, Saglam is down and out with fever and gastric flu. Airich will still be the main event fighter against last-minute replacement Levan Jomardashvili (20-1) from Georgia.
“It’s a pity that we will not see the fight between Airich and Saglam“, says promoter Ahmet Öner. “But there’s nothing we can do against illness or injuries. We always have a plan B for these cases. Still I hope that Saglam will be back in action soon and ready to take on Airich early next year.“
Airich himelf who has already spent the last four days in Stralsund for his final preparation doesn’t care much that he has to adjust to a new opponent: “Of course, I wanted to face Saglam and prepared to fight him. But to me it doesn’t matter who my opponent is. I know that lots of people don’t think I will go far but I know how strong I really am and I know that I will surprise a lot of people once I face stronger opponents. So far I will just knock out whoever comes my way. To me all my victims are just more names and wins to add to my record.“
The co-main event features former German amateur standout Erkan Teper (1-0) who faces Alexander “The Great“ Kahl (15-6-1) in his second pro bout. Also live on Eurosport: The PABA lightweight championship between Azad Azizov (23-3-1) and Kakhaber Avetisian (15-11-1).
On the undercard Dominican contender Rafael Bejaran (10-0) takes on hard-hitting Michael Schubov (13-4) from Munich. Mike Keta (6-1) faces Bojan Zarkov (1-4) from Serbia, Murat Öner (2-0) takes on Andy Thiele (1-9-1) and Domenic von Chrzanowski (4-0) steps into the ring against Tomas Freitag (0-6). In the only female fight of the night unbeaten Özlem Sahin (8-0-1) takes on Fleis Djendji (11-7-1) from Serbia.
The show starts Friday night at 6.30pm, Eurosport broadcasts live starting at 8.25pm (German time).
