European Boxing News: Erdei, Drews, Kessler, Bonsu, Piccirillo

By Per Ake Persson

Panamanian light heavyweight Tito Mendoza have been in full training to face WBA ruler Stipe Drews in Germany this fall but as Drews reportedly is injured, laprensa.com writes that Tito now will be the opponent for WBO champ Zsolt Erdei, who defends the title November 24 in Dresden. Mendoza is not rated by the WBO but that is a problem that is normally easily solved.

Sauerland Event has signed up Swiss heavyweight Nikola Vujasinovic, a four-time national champ at super heavy. Nikola lost to Alexander Povetkin in the European championships in 2004. Vujasinovic makes his prodebut December 8 on a Sauerland show that according to swissboxing.ch will go ahead in either Basle or Berlin and with IBF middleweight champ Arthur Abraham headlining.

Russian Timur Shaylezov, who recently lost the NABA bantam title, moves down to superfly and faces Panamanian Ricardo Molina October 25 in Ekaterinburg.

Serbian junior middle Nikola Stevanovic won the IBF Youth title October 5 in Belgrade with a ten round unanimous points win over Frenchman Cedric Charlier.

Swedish Shadow Pro Box will stage a dinner show at the Garden nightclub in Gothenburg, headlined by heavyweight Johan Thorbjornsson.

In Madrid, light heavy Alejandro Lakatus, who gave then WBO king Dariusz Michalczewski a very tough fight back in 2001 and also fought Hugo Garay and Zsolt Erdei, returned after two years out and stopped Romanian Pavel Virgil in the first.

Frantisek Kasanic won the IBC Intercontinental cruiser title with a seventh round knockout over Hungarian Ruben Oliver on a show in Nove Zamky, Slovakia, October 5.

Unbeaten Swiss welter Riad Menasria will return to action after a brief layoff. Menasria was earlier this year offered a chance at current European welter champ Jackson Osei Bonsu but fell out due to a dispute over money and dropped out for awhile.

WBO Intercontinental heavy champ Aleksander Dimitrenko defends against German veteran Timo Hoffmann November 17 on a Universum Box Promotion at the Boerdeland Arena in Magdeburg. WIBF feather queen Ina Menzer co-headlines.

Cuban stars Yuriorkis Gamboa, based in Germany with Arena, and Yan Barthelemy, based in Florida but also with Arena, will make their US debuts on October 30 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, on the undercard to a show headlined by Edison Miranda.

OPI 2000 has postponed Andrea Sarritzu´s defence of the European flyweight title that was set for October 12 against Spaniard Rafael Lozano. A new date will be announced shortly.

Zauerbek Baysangurov defends the European 154 lb title November 17 in Kiev against Roman Dzuman, who comes off a controversial draw against Ivan Gontsa for the EE-EU belt.

Finnish Steel Ring promotes in Yliharma November 2 with heavyweight Juha Haapoja on top of a pro/am bill. Haapoja is then expected to fight Sami Elovaara in December with the national title at stake.

European welter king Jackson Osei Bonsu is said to be in great shape for his upcoming defence against Frenchman Nordine Mouchi October 27 in Mazures, France. Sparring is as always difficult to find for the very hard punching Belgian.

Looks like Italian veteran Michele Piccirillo will get a crack at WBC junior middle champ Vernon Forrest December 1 in the US.

Danish media reports that WBA and WBC super middle champ Mikkel Kessler is sidelined with a cold and thus far hasn’t sparred with Brian Magee, who arrived in Copenhagen this past weekend. Kessler is expected to be back in full training in a few days though and the fight against Joe Calzaghe November 3 shouldn´t be affected. Magee is in Denmark until October 14.

The Swedish Boxing Federation have received a general permission from the Martial Arts Delegation to give permission to promoters to stage shows. Previously a promoter applied to the Federation, got permission but then the promoter had to apply to MAD as well.

The rules however are unchanged: fights can last a maximum of 12 minutes and ten ounce gloves used in all weigh divisions. The general permission last through December of 2008. This means less paperwork for all involved but if professional boxing can endure at least another year with the current rules and survive is an open question.