European Boxing News: Haussler, Sanavia, Loi, Erdei, Lyakhovich, Adamek

ByBoxing Press

By Per Ake Persson

German super middle Danilo Haussler is sidelined with an injury and the rematch against European titlist Cristian Sanavia is off or at least postponed. Sanavia will still make a voluntary defence of the title though and a very likely challenger is Dane Mads Larsen. Date and site to be announced.

Italian all-time great Duilio Loi has passed away in Milan at the age of 79. Loi suffered from Alzheimer´s and spent his last years in a nursing home. In his day Loi was Italian, European and World champion in a career that lasted from 1948 through 1963. In 1960 he drew 60,000 fans to the San Siro Stadium to watch him fight and beat Carlos Ortiz for the World title at junior welter.

Loi held the European title at lightweight, then relinquished the title and moved up to welter where he also won the European title. All in all, Duilio Loi compiled an outstanding 116-3-7 record. He´s widely regarded as one of the best fighters ever to come out of Europe. Loi was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2005.

Former European super middle champ Devi Gogiya returns to action January 23 in Barnaul, Russia. Gogiya face Dimitry Sukhotskiy in a scheduled eight-rounder. Headlining are light heavies Rudolf Asaturyan, a local fighter, and Artem Vychkin, who square off for the national title, interim version.

Nothing official from Universum yet but Hungarian media writes that WBO light heavy champ Zsolt Erdei will defend the title April 26.

Russian giant Evgeny Orlov is in Bulgaria sparring with Sergei Lyakhovich. Orlov, who previously have been mainly active in K 1, sparred with then future WBA heavy champ Ruslan Chagaev prior to his fight against Nikolay Valuev and did it so well he got a contract with SES – not to mention that Chagaev beat Valuev.

Former WBC light heavy champ Tomasz Adamek, now a cruiser, will remain in Poland although he´s promoted by Main Events. The plan is to have Adamek fight O´Neil Bell in a IBF eliminator. Tomasz will not fight any tuneups prior to this.

German paper Bild Zeitung wrote a few days ago that Aleksander Dimitrenko priced himself out of the European title fight against Luan Krasniqi that was set for March 8. Krasniqi will continue training while the EBU find another challenger – most ranked heavies in Europe are occupied elsewhere.

French junior middle Alban Mothie will defend the title March 14 in Chatellerault against Sebastian Spengler. The winner will have to face Damien Bertu, whom Mothie controversially outscored late last year to win the title.