European Boxing News: Steve Cunningham – Jean Mormeck World Title Unification In Works?

By Per Ake Persson

A unification bout between IBF cruiser champ Steve “USS” Cunnigham and WBA / WBC counterpart Jean Marc Mormeck could be in the works for September 28 in France with Don King Productions and French partners promoting, writes the Philly Daily News.

The Giuseppe Lauri vs Michele Di Rocco clash for the European Union 140 lb title is now on for July 11 in Varese, Italy. Junior middle veteran Michele Piccirillo is featured in the chief support and welter Carel Sandon, the nephew of former world middle champ Sumbu Kalambay, makes his prodedut on the undercard.

Heavies Dennis Boytsov, Gbenga Oloukun and newcomer Vladimir Tereshkin, middleweight Sebastian Zbik, and super middle Eduard Gutknecht make up the undercard to the WBO eliminator at heavyweight between Luan Krasniqi and Tony Thompson at the Color Line Arena in Hamburg, July 14. Sasha Dimitrenko will fight for his old title, the WBO Intercontinental belt, in the chief support.

French welter Frederik Klose will now face Franck Harroche Horta, a decent southpaw, on the undercard to the Mathis vs Lamare and Sidorenko vs Arnould doubleheader June 29 in Marseille. Off the bill is cruiser Majid Zaim. French champ Jean Marc Monrose will now face Amar Mancer in a non-title fight.

2000 Gruppen i Stockholm Inc with sub company Scandinavian Probox International have today received permission from the Martial Arts Delegation to stage a professional boxing event at the Eriksdal Hall in Stockholm August 18. Behind the company you´ll find Rolf Traff, a veteran on the Swedish boxing scene. Traff, formerly known as Pettersson, has in the pros worked with the likes of Mikael Nilsson, Mille Markovic and others. Headlining this show could be middleweight Tonton Semakala. The permission is for a maximum of eight profights with the special Swedish rules in effect.

Big Timo Hoffmann, Sauerland Event´s resurrected heavy, fights Timur Ibragimov in the chief support to Asikainen vs Sylvester June 23 in Zwickau. Hoffmann looked finished when he lost to Paolo Vidoz in 2005 but another change in trainer s- Timo has had many trainers during his long career until Uwe Schuster made the big man come alive again. He beat stablemate Cengiz Koc in an internal “eliminator” and knocked out Konstantin Onofrei in his last bout.

Ibragimov comes in with two straight losses but those have been at higher level than Hoffmann have competed in for a long time so it will an interesting crossroads fight. For Denmark, Norway and Finland it´s a big boxing night with Mads Larsen, Thomas Hansvoll, Cecilia Braekhus and Amin Asikainen on the bill and the show is partly televised in all three countries.

It could well be that Hungarian heavy Zoltan Petranyi will be the opponent for comebacking – into pro boxing that is – South African heavy Francois Botha on July 6, writes profibox.hu.

Spanish middle Ruben Diaz takes on Georgian Levan Shonia for the vacant EBA title June 23 in Bilbao. The status of the EBA title is still unclear – it was formed in the ashes of the WBA International title (not to be be confused with the Intercontinental crown) and works independently with none of the “world” title bodies backing it up.

Haken Sevecke, always cornerman for Sauerland´s fighters in Germany, promotes his annual charity show in Hattersheim, just outside of Frankfurt, July 21.

The arrest of Italian cruiser Pietro Aurino appears to be a part of a big crackdown by the police against members of organized crime. There were as of yesterday seven people arrested and eleven others indicted with more coming.

There were no purse bids today in Rome for European 175 lb champ Thomas Ulrich´s mandatory defence against Ukrainian Yuri Barashyan as the EBU gave the involved parties another week to negotiate.