European Boxing News: Klitschko, Campillo, Erdei, N’Dam, Bonsu, Golovkin

By Per Ake Persson

It looks like former WBA light heavy king Gabriel Campillo will take on former WBO 175 lb champ Zsolt Erdei March 12 in New York with the WBA regular title at stake. This of course mean that the winner of Juergen Braehmer and Beibut Shumenov, current WBO and WBA rulers, is crowned superchamp by the WBA after their unification fight January 8.

Campillo has thus withdrawn from a fight for the vacant European belt against Thierry Karl January 22 in France. Replacing Gabriel is Brit Danny McIntosh.

European cruiser champ Alexander Frenkel has former WBC ruler Giacobbe Fragomeni as mandatory challenger. Frenkel is set to defend the title February 26 in Bamberg but if it will be against Fragomeni isn´t clear yet.

K2 promotes a show the very same day in Stuttgart with Luan Krasniqi fighting Jonathon Banks in a heavyweight eliminator: Exactly how Krasniqi got into this position after two years out and a loser in his last fight is a good question. If these dates stick it means we will have a rare, in fact very rare, clash of German networks with ARD televising the Sauerland show while RTL shows the K2 event.

While P3 Boxing dominates boxing in Finland with Amin Asikainen as their main name and the close ties to Team Sauerland some “smaller” managers and promoters like Markku Pirinen and Jaakko Helminen have formed Boxing Finlandia, which will take over the operations from Steel Ring and other promoters. Among their fighters is cruiser Juho Haapoja, Jaakko Myllyla, Mika Joensuu and Kai Kauramaki.

European Union heavyweight champ Robert Helenius has hardpunching but somewhat limited Yakup Saglam as mandatory challenger. The EBU have set January 13 as deadline for purse bids or agreements.

Belgian welter “Sugar” Jackson Osei Bonsu headlined the annual Christmas Day show in Izegem and won on a second round disqualification over Brazilian Luis Augusto Dos Santos. Dos Santos was floored in the first but got up and did alright but was then caught by a left hook and went down again. As he got up he spat out the mouthpiece to get more time and had a point deducted.

In the second round, all fight is reported to have left the Brazilian, who flopped over after a light body shot and as he was down the towel came in. The retirement wasn´t accepted by referee Daniel Van De Wiele, who instead DQ´d Dos Santos. Next up for Jackson is a fight for the WPBF title February 20 in Leuven, a city near Brussells.

WBA “regular” middleweight champ Gennadyi Golovkin has interim ruler Hassan N´Dam as mandatory challenger with January 30 as deadline for the fight to happen. Golovkin and his team have offered N´Dam 100,000 USD for the fight with January 18 in Berlin as date.

However, a purse bid seems more likely with the fight to happen later in 2011. There´s also rumors that the promotional contract between N´Dam and Asventure Promotion, headed by Sebastien Acaries, has expired. Another rumor says N´Dam will defend his portion of the title in February and for now bypass Golovkin.

Team Golovkin have also offered WBC interim king Sebastian Zbik a substantial offer with the fight to happen in New York. Add to the mix Golovkin´s unsettled business with Universum and one can easly write that there is more to come.

IBF and WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko was pictured in the Palm Beach Post in Florida December 22 playing golf, throwing a swing with full power so the injury that forced him to pull out of the Derek Chisora fight (scheduled for December 11) appears to be healing well. Klitschko told the Post that if a fight with David Haye didn´t materialize, a fight with Tomasz Adamek could be next – or Chisora.

The Finnish Butterbean, heavyweight Janne Katajisto, 7-0, headlines Caramelito Promotions´ show in Vasa, Finland, January 29. Katajisto went, I believe, 2-5 in seven meetings with the more famed Robert Helenius, rising star in the Sauerland stable.