European Boxing News: Sturm, Veit, Chagaev, Ibragimov, Larsen

By Per Ake Persson

Spotlight Boxing won the purse bids on Tuesday for WBA middle champ Felix Sturm´s mandatory defence against American Randy Griffin. Spotlight beat both Arena Box Promotion, Don King Production and its main company, Universum Box Promotion, with an offer for 1 678 555 UISD. When and where the fight will happen is not clear but Spotlight have informed the WBA it could happen September 15 in Rostock on the Veit vs Brahmer show, October 13 in Moscow on the Chagaev vs Ibragimov bill or October 20 in Germany.

The fact that Arena put pressure on Universum and Spotlight with their bid will surely add fuel to the fire that already burns between the three Hamburg based promotional outfits.

Arena will for the first time in Germany promote outside of Hamburg and will do a big show in nearby Luebeck September 21 with heavies Odlanier Solis, Steffen Kretschmann and Konstantin Airich on the bill. Also on for the show are lightweight Yuriorkis Gamboa, jr feather Yan Barthelemy and jr welter Selcuk Aydin.

Danish supermiddle Mads Larsen will fight Australian Nader Hamdan in a non-title eight-rounder on the Abraham vs Gevor show August 18 in Berlin. “Mads don´t need a big buildup” says matchmaker Hagen Doering. “He´s not a young boy and we will move him fast and push him up the ratings for a titleshot as soon as possible.”

Also on for the bill is Michel Trabant vs Gianmario Grassellini – a fight that was scheduled for June 23 but cancelled at the last moment as Trabant had to pull out due to illness.

Vietnamese, based in Spain and sometimes in the US, lightweight Hoang Sang Nguyen scored a good win July 22 with a points win over Frenchman Mihaita Mutu over eight in Palma de Mallorca.

Wking Box Team, headed by Winfried Spiering, who manages among others EBU middle champ Sebastian Sylvester, promotes a show in Berlin September 2 with heavies Aleksander Jakob and Pedro Carrion on the bill.