European Boxing News: Braehmer, Cleverly, Bonsu, Mock

By Per Ake Persson

WBO light heavy king Juergen Braehmer will defend the title against interim ruler Nathan Cleverly in London April 2. It´s an exellent matchup and under normal circumstances I would pick Braehmer but let´s not forget he comes in with almost a year off although he´s been training for two title defences that were cancelled due to injury and illness respectively.

For my money Juergen is the best could-have-been fighter out there. He is for sure a world champ, and a good one at that, but had the talent to reach so much further but a long line of out of the ring problems stopped his progress.

The WBF´s decision not to sanction Evander Holyfield vs Brian Nielsen for its title looks more than a little bit weird considering that they once had Imrich Borka, 0-2 at the time, fighting for the title. Of lately Tommi Schmidt, at his peak a six round level fighter, came back after almost ten years out to fight for WBF´s International title and the list can be made a lot longer. Who cares, said Sauerland´s Chris Meyer in a short comment to the incident.

Belgian welter Jackson Osei Bonsu continues his way back into title contention with a showdown against Spanish champ Jose Del Rio March 4 in Deurne, Belgium. If all goes well “Sugar” Jackson takes on Karlo Tabaghua April 1 in Gent.

The local boxing club in Castellbisbal, Spain, promotes a pro-am show February 18. Headlining are Xavier Urpi, Guzman Castillo and Damian Anto. Six amateur fights round up the program.

European Union super middle champ Lolenga Mock now has Italian Mohamed Ali Ndiaye as mandatory challenger. The EBU have set May 18 as deadline for agreements. There´s also attempts to have Mock fight undefeated prospect Andrea Di Luisa, also from Italy.

EC Box Promotion stage an “Evil Fight Night” on Saturday in Hamburg. The show features a number of interesting names, some on the way up such as middleweight Gokalp Ozekler who face Mariusz Biskupski in the headliner, others are on the way back such as lightheavy Kai Kurzawa, at one time a bright prospect with Sauerland.

Also on the bill is cruiser Jovo Pudar, back in Serbia after fighting most of his career in the US, and Montenegrian middleweight Predrag Radosevic, who has an inflated 22-0 record.