By Marco Bratusch
After former European champion Guillaume Frenois has relinquished his continental belt after two successful defenses in the junior lightweight division in order to take his shot for an IBF eliminator against Billy Dib (a fight that very likely will now be upgraded to the full, vacant IBF title after Gervonta Davis lost it on the scale last Saturday in Las Vegas), the European Boxing Union has called for the two highest available ranked opponents to compete for the vacant European belt. Consequentially, the managers of former titlist Juli Giner (21-2-1, 8 KOs), from Spain, and two-time world title challenger Stephen Smith (25-3, 15 KOs) will have time to sealed a private deal before September 13th, avoiding the purse bid set for that day.
The first defense of European bantamweight champion Abigail Medina (17-3-2, 8 KOs) against mandatory challenger Martin Ward (25-3-1, 5 KOs) has been postponed to September 30 in Hartlepool, England, in a Phil Jeffries promoted boxing event.
On the same date of September 30 in Lomianski, Poland, local fighter Oleksandra Sidorenko (6-0, 1 KO) and French Isabelle Pare (6-0, 1 KO) will battle for the vacant European female lightweight title in a Tymex Boxing Promotion fight night.
The vacant European Union (EU) featherweight title will be at stake between Hungarian Robert Laki (14-1-1, 8 KOs) and Kamil Laszczyk (23-0, 8 KOs), who boxes out of Poland. Parties will have time no later than September 6th to reach a private deal, avoiding the newly-called purse bid set for that day.
Boxe Loreni won today’s bid to stage the first defense of European Union junior featherweight champion Luca Rigoldi (14-1-1, 5 KOs) against mandatory challenger Anthony Settoul (22-6, 8 KOs). Loreni offered 7,480 Euros as the only bidder attending, and might set the fight for November in Italy.
In other news, Italian super welterweight Francesco Lezzi (9-8-1, 2 KOs) has been hired as last-minute oppenent for the 22-year-old English 154 lbs title holder Ted Cheeseman (9-0, 7 KOs), who is scheduled to fight on next Friday in London as part of a Matchroom Boxing card named “Next-Gen” featuring several British hot prospect at York Hall in London, United Kingdom.