European Boxing News: Holyfield, Oener, McDonnell, Konecny, Sosnowski

By Per Ake Persson

All time great Evander Holyfield is now reportedly on for a fight in Las Vegas against Derrick Rossy April 24 which leaves his March 6 date open for a possible fight against Francois Botha – meanwhile Francois Botha vs Joey Abell February 27 in Kampala appears to be more likely as advance payments have been made, at least to Abell.

However, the contract signed by “Minnesota Ice” reads he´s to fight for the WBFoundation title – against the WBFederation champ Francois Botha. The organisations are split but most of the people in the WBFederation are from the older Australia-based WBFoundation. The WBFederation title is by the way vacant.

Other news: Arena promoter Ahmet Oener is facing 22-24 months on probation and a hefty fine of 120 000 EUR if sentenced for 16 different charges, among them assault, blackmail and coercion – exactly how the German legal terms translates into English is hard to say and if one read German press one get more the impression of crimes – if any – done in the heat of the moment rather than organized, systematic criminal acts.

Either way the court hand out its verdict February 11. Oener tells Hamburger Morgenblad the fine does him no harm and in regards of living adress Ahmet told the court he lives at Hotel Kempinski in Istanbul.

Many of the charges are related to the very hot relationship with Universum, both at one time based in Hamburg but Arena are now partly relocated even though Oener and Universum go a long way back and Ahmet fought for Universum during his professional career.

The Hamburger Morgenblad lists today all 16 charges against Oener. It´s indeed a long list revealing a very hot temper – but to label Oener a gangster as some media have done is to stretch things out. The “Tony Sopranos” in the real world usually don´t just threaten – they take action as well. Bild writes that Oener gets off the hook with “a black and blue eye” – if found guilty that is. With this the Arena show March 27 in Hamburg is very much on as planned.

Anja Trabant is dead at the age of 38. A former Miss Berlin she was married to former EBU welter champ Michel Trabant for some years and also managed him. The two later divorced and Ms. Trabant worked in different businesses but above all she seems to have been drinking – and Bild Zeitung writes that her death was due to her liver and kidneys failing after years of alcohol abuse and for the last six weeks she was in a coma. She was the mother of two, 10 and 14, but neither of the kids lived with her.

Rudel Obreja, these days President of the Romanian Federation and in the 1984 Olympics one of the men Mark Breland defeated, has been suspended by AIBA for an eleven year ban on top of an existing 2-year ban and a 20,000 Swiss franc fine. As to why it appears that Obreja denounced the flagrant irregularities in the appointment of judges (he´s not the only one) in a tournament. The Romanian Federation also handles proboxing but that part isn´t affected in the case where AIBA threatens to exlude Romanian fighters from international tournaments as long as Obreja is President.

Jamie McDonnell, fresh off a big upset win over Ian Napa, is awarded with a shot at the vacant European bantam title against Jerome Arnould March 6 in France. This spot was originally Napa´s but as he lost Jamie gets the big chance.

EE-EU heavy champ Maxim Maslov defends the title against Bosnian Adnan Buharalija March 20 in Narva, Estonia. It´s voluntary defence by Maslov and it´s fair to say his promoters are very careful in choosing Buharalija as opponent.

Czech junior middle Lukas Konecny, promoted by SES in Germany, is now the mandatory challenger for European champ Ryan Rhodes.

While European heavyweight Albert Sosnowski is to make a voluntary defence against Audley Harrison April 9 the winner of that contest have Ukrainian Alexander Dimitrenko as mandatory challenger.

Mads Larsen makes no if and buts about the importance of Saturday´s fight against Brian Magee for the vacant European super middle title. The now 36-year old Danish veteran knows he has to win to have a future in boxing. If he does that it´s easy to see a number of opportunities such as facing WBA “standard” champ Dimitri Sartison, or perhaps WBO king Robert Stieglitz. For Magee it´s probably the same.

Heavyweight Timur Ibragimov is now training in Russia and face Tanzanian Awad Tamim February 6 in Moscow in a fight that was postponed just before Christmas when Ibragimov was injured. At stake is the vacant WBA International title. Middleweight Dmitry Pirog is also on the bill in a tuneup before facing European middleweight champ Matthew Macklin in April.