By Marco Bratusch
Chris Sanigar Promotions, which won the related purse bid weeks ago with a solid offer of 46,200 Euros, announced earlier this week that the European flyweight championship titleholder Vincent Legrand (27-0, 16 KOs) and very live mandatory challenger Andrew Selby (10-0, 5 KOs) will be taking place on October 27th in Newport, UK.
Tomorrow night in Torrelavega, Spain, undefeated local prospect Sergio “Niño” Garcia (27-0, 13 KOs) will take on France’s Maxime Beaussire (27-1-1,10 KOs) for the vacant European junior middleweight title, as former titlist Zakaria Attou was stripped of his belt last week because of an injury which will be needing three complete weeks to recover, according to medical certificate. The bout is going to top a Maraillabox promoted card and looks to deliver a good show as both men like to come forward and trade many punches at close quarters.
French boxing venture Europrom informed that a private deal was finalized in order to stage the European bantamweight title in Vesoul, France, on October 26, for champion Georges Ory (9-2-1, 1 KO) taking on Josh Wale (26-9-2, 13 KOs).
Haxhi “Robin” Krasniqi (48-5, 17 KOs), the current European super middleweight champion, will take on German Stefan Haertel (17-1, 2 KOs), who recently became his stablemate at SES Boxing, as first and volontary defense of his belt. The bout in going to take place on 17 November in Germany.
Last Saturday in Lomza, Poland, unbeaten European middleweight king Kamil Szeremeta (18-0, 4 KOs) made his first defense of the title stopping challenger Ruben Diaz (25-2-2, 16 KOs), from Spain, at the end of round ten. Diaz looked to be out of his feet and took a series of clean hooks which dropped him before referee Giuseppe Quartarone stop the contest in the same instant the white towel flew in from the Spanish corner. Szeremeta, who was slightly ahead on all three scorecards at the time of the stoppage, was confirming to be the better-schooled boxer, using his jab and composure, throwing punches out of his accurate counter-punching style. Diaz, 38, tried to play the role of the aggressor early on to land his dangerous left hook but had little results.
Italian Mirko Geografo (12-1-1, 1 KO) and Frenchman Anderson Prestot (21-1, 10 KOs) will likely face one another for the vacant European Union (EU) 160-pound title. The purse bid for this contest has been already set for October 10 in Rome by the EBU. Both boxers are former junior middleweights, but Geografo just defended his national 160-pound title last Saturday in Rome, barely edging mandatory challenger Marco Boezio via majority decision after ten deeply spirited rounds that put together a strong case for an Italian fight-of-the-year candidate. Geografo, a switching counterpuncher, had to dig very deep as Boezio put on a steady pressure all night, cutting the ring off masterfully to unload heavy shots up and down from mid range. On the ther hand, Geografo’s rope-a-dope action was clever and paired with an accurate punch selection, even though he took several clean blows. Judges saw the contest 96-95 twice and 95-95 for the champ. This contest topped a rich BBT Promotion night at Centrale del Tennis stadium.
An interesting rumor which broke out last week in Italy has now cracked the surface as 24-year-old Italian heavyweight Guido Vianello looks on the verge to sign with Top Rank. Vianello, a 6 and 1/2 feet, 230 pounds rangy boxer replaced Roberto Cammarelle in the national amateur team and took part in 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he lost in the opening bracket to Cuban southpaw Lenier Pero. Vianello might be deemed as a bit slow and mechanical in his movements but he can count on a solid work ethics and big room for improvements. He was ringside at the aforementioned BBT boxing event in Rome last Saturday and confirmed this writer he was expected to fly to Las Vegas the next week in order to ink with Bob Arum’s powerful boxing venture, friendly asking to keep that news confidential for that moment. Vianello would be penciled to make is prizefighter debut for the new promoter on the undercard of the Vasiliy Lomachenko vs. José Pedraza WBA/WBO lightweight unification showdown at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater on December 8th.
Again regarding the big fellows, heavyweights Gianmarco Cardillo (9-0-1, 2 KOs) and Czech Republic’s Pavel “Pablo” Sour (10-1, 6 KOs) have been matched to fight for a vacant IBF Mediterranean belt on October 26 at Sport Palace in Cassino, central Italy, topping a BBT Poduction boxing night.
In other worldwide news, unbeaten 29-year-old Simon Kean (15-0, 14 KOs) will be defending his WBC Francophone heavyweight title versus Dillon “Big Country” Carman (13-3, 12 KOs) while in the middleweight class Steven Butler (24-1-1, 21 KOs) and Jordans Balmir (16-0, 6 KOs), two young boxers, are going to face one another for the same version of WBC belt – this time vacant – filling a Camille Estephan’s Eye of the Tiger promoted bill on October 6th in Quebec City, Canada.