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01/24/2007 Archived Entry: "Euro-Beat Update: Alvarez replaced by Ilie vs. Leal in New Sweden Show"
Euro-Beat Update: Alvarez replaced by Ilie vs. Leal in New Sweden Show
By Per Ake Persson
Courtesy of Boxing Press
COMEBACKING cruiser Giovanni Alvarez is off the New Sweden show January 27 in Gothenburg due to a hand injury. He is replaced by Romanian Giulian Ilie, who takes on Argentinian Christian Leal over four three minute rounds. Norwegians Nikita Dubunin and Andreas Evensen are also off the bill The show is headlined by female supermiddle Aasa Sandell, who takes on Trinidad´s Scroller Carringon in what, all due respect to all involved, is a pretty terrible matchup. This fight is scheduled for six-twos.
Heavyweight Aldo Colliander takes on ex-WBA cruiser champ Robert Daniels in the co-headliner. As it looks now there will be nine fights on the bill with a total of 38 rounds scheduled.
Media reports of slow ticketsales but 3500 tickets sold sounds pretty good to me - but then again the show takes place at the 12 000-seater Scandinavium. The event goes out live in Sweden in TV4+. Ringside seats costs over 200 EUR and there´s a dresscode to them.
WBA I/C welter champ Yuri Nuzhenko defends the title February 27 in Kiev against Farkad Bakirov. Lightheavies Vyacheslav Uzelkov and Artem Vychkin clash for the vacant EEU title in a supporting bout.
Next up for WBA heavy champ Nikolai Valuev is the mandatory defence against Ruslan Chagaev. The WBA will call for pursebids February 9 if no agreement is reached before that and wants the fight to go ahead no later than April 15.
Timo Hoffmann returns March 3 in Rostock on the undercard to Asikainen vs Sylvester. Hoffmann put his career back on track last time out with a points win over stablemate Cengiz Koc.
Croatian supermiddle Stepjan Bozic headlines a small show in Rijeka January 26 along with middleweight Vedran Akrap. These two will also be in featured bouts when Mia St John and Ramona Kuehne clash for the WBC female title April 14 in Croatia.
Swiss supermiddle Sofiane Sebihi suffered an upset loss to Dutchman Najim Etthouali on the undercard to Valuev vs McCline. It was scored 77-75 on two cards for Etthouali and then a pretty amazing 79-74 for Sebihi, who made a bright start but then ran out of gas.
Veteran heavyweights Rasko Draskovic and Ivica Perkovic clash for the inaugural WBC Mediterranean title March 30 in Croatia. As a result of this fight coming together Perkovic pulled out of the scheduled fight against Italian Paolo Vidoz that was set to take place this weekend.
German heavy Steffen Kretschmann is sidelined with a knee injury. The press release from Arena Box Promotion reads "McCline and Kretschmann, what do they have in common?"
It appears that it will be Hungarian veteran Zoltan Petranyi that takes on Edgar Kalnar´s for the Int´l Latvian title March 10 in Riga - at least his name is on the posters announcing the fight.
Supermiddle Jurgen Brahmer, who has been called the biggest German boxing talent of all time by promoter Klaus Peter Kohl, takes on former WBO middle champ Hector Velazco from Argentina February 24 in Oberhausen in the co-headliner to WBA lighheavy ruler Silvio Branco´s defence against Croatian Stipe Drews. Velazco, 34-5-1, lost to a split decision to Felix Sturm in 2003 and was stopped by Arthur Abraham in five in 2005.
Brahmer, 28-1, had a rough 2006 when he first ran out of gas - a shoulder injury may have played a part as well - against Andre Thysse to win a unanimous decision and then lost to stablemate Mario Veit. He looked sharp in his last outing though knocking out Francisco Mora in eight.
