European Boxing News: Canclaux, Sarritzu, Diaconu, Kessler, Krasniqi, Mathis

By Per Ake Persson

French junior middle Christophe Canclaux is still waiting for his shot at the WBA title held by Joachim Alcine, who´s now sidelined with an injury. Canclaux will stay busy with a fight lined up for either March 22 in France or will be on Sauerland´s show in Neubrandenburg April 12.

Talented Russian junior welter Sergey Sorokin goes for the vacant WBC International title, that Italian Giuseppe Lauri relinquished, on March 11 in Halle/Saale. Opponent is Kanat Kartenbaev from Kazachstan.

European flyweight champ Andrea Sarritzu defends against Frenchman Bernard Inom April 26 in Sassari with OPI 2000 promoting. Official challenger for newly crowned European light heavy ruler Yuri Barashian is former WBA king Stipe Drews.

Adrian Diaconu vs. Chris Henry for the WBC interim light heavy title will now go ahead April 19 with thre site remaining Bucharest. The show was originally scheduled for March 29.

Team Palle´s response – in Danish only at teampalle.dk – to Warrior Boxing’s aggressive press release that claimed Mikkel Kessler was afraid of facing Edison Miranda, is basically a calm “there are ongoing talks”. There´s nothing decided yet on Kessler´s next fight but Team Palle don´t rule out that Miranda could be a future opponent this fall. Style-wise, these two shape up well with Miranda´s aggression against Kessler´s fine jab and good boxing.

German heavy Luan Krasniqi is at the crossroads in his career. First, he pulled out of the position as mandatory challenger for the vacant European title as there were plans made for a show with WBA champ and stablemate Ruslan Chagaev.

As that fight fell through when the WBA didn´t grant Chagaev permission for another voluntary defence, Krasniqi must probably stay busy in order to remain in the title picture and perhaps face the winner of the Chagev vs Valuev rematch. Luan has been inactive since losing a WBO eliminator against Tony Thompson in July of last year.

French veteran Alain Simon´s career came to an end this weekend after a stoppage loss to Croatian Drazen Ordulj, a guy Alain stopped back in 2001. Simon was as brave as they come and while not good enough to beat the likes of Aleksander Petkovic, Vincenzo Cantatore or Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, he always gave his all.

Spotlight Boxing promotes in Magdeburg April 19 with middleweight Sebastian Zbik and heavyweight Sebastian Koeber headlining. Slovenian welter Jan Zaveck, mandatory challenger for the European title, is also on the bill.

In Metz, France, Ann Sophie Mathis stopped Anna Pascal while cruiser Jean Marc Monrose took out German Marco Heinichen in the first round of a final tuneup before challenging European champ Johny Jensen.