By Marco Bratusch

The second purse bid in a few week span concerning the super-middleweight division took place today at the EBU offices in Rome, Italy. Germany’s Agon Sports slightly outbid Italy’s BBT Promotion by few thousand Euros earning the right to stage the vacant European 168-lb title between old rivals and now European co-challengers Tyron Zeuge, aged 27, and Giovanni De Carolis, aged 35. Official offers were 96,233 Euros and 90,110 Euros respectively. The fight is expected to take place in May, with Zeuge no longer taking part of Agon Sports’ boxing event scheduled for March 21st in Wuppertall.

The pair met twice in 2016 for De Carolis’ WBA secondary ”regular” title, providing a battled draw in the first encounter and a convincing twelfth round TKO victory for Zeuge in the rematch. All those events were promoted by Sauerland Events, which was at the time Zeuge’s promoter before they parted ways. Zeuge (24-1-1, 14 KOs) has now replaced Emre Cukur as co-challenger to face De Carolis (28-9-1, 13 KOs) for the vacant European belt as the German-Turkish boxer unanimously lost to light-heavyweight Davide Faraci over eight rounds weeks ago in what was supposed to be a warm-up bout.

In the same division, the European Union (EU) title which Zeuge left vacant will be disputed by Italian-Romanian puncher Dragan Lepei (19-2-2, 10 KOs) and Spanish boxer Guillermo Rivero (8-0-1, 1 KO). The two have time until March 16th to finalize a deal before the already scheduled purse bid.

As boxing fans already know, the EBU board has finally voted unanimously to sanction the Joe Joyce (10-0, 9 KOs) vs. Daniel Dubios (14-0, 13 KOs) bout for the vacant European heavyweight title. The fascinating puncher vs. destroyer affair between unbeaten fighters is scheduled for April 11 at O2 Arena in London, UK, headlining a Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotion boxing event. The winner will then have to take on official challenger Marco Huck.

The secondary European Union (EU) heavyweight belt will be disputed between co-challengers Petar Milas (15-0, 11 KOs), from Croatia and aged 24, and ten-years older Newfel Ouatah (18-3, 10 KOs). Their handlers have time until Mach 9th to reach a private deal avoiding the scheduled purse bid.

Finland’s veteran lightweight Edis Tatli (32-3, 10 KOs) will try to become a three-time European champion next May in his hometown of Helsinki when he will take on mandatory challenger Gianluca Ceglia (15-3-1, 3 KOs), from Italy and former European Union (EU) beltholder, in a Pekka Maeki promoted boxing event. The Finnish venture and Italy’s BBT Promotion reached a deal last week in order to avoid the purse bid scheduled for today.

Featherweights Mauro Forte, from Italy, and British boxer Isaac Lowe, both aged 26, are likely going to collide for the European Union (EU) 126-lbs title held by the first man. The matchup looks terrific here, although maybe a bit too tactical for casual boxing fans. Lowe (20-0-3, 6 KOs), managed by MTK Global, just fought on the undercard of the Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder rematch last Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he outpointed Mexico’s Alberto Guevara over ten rounds in an incredibly foul-filled contest, with a total of six points deducted from the two men by referee Vic Drakulich. Forte (14-0-1, 5 KOs) is a skilled southpaw boxer and the bout would play more even than expected.