EBU super featherweight champ Samir Ziani’s defense against mandatory challenger John Carter (13-0-1) from Spain will now go ahead July 10 in Granada.
Ziani’s 33-3-1 ledger includes a loss on points to former IBF lightweight ruler Richard Commey but it was a hometown decision even if it happened in Copenhagen.
Commey was then promoted by Team Sauerland and the fight took place on a Nordic Fight Show promoted by Sauerland. Ziani also lost to Guillaume Frenois in a very close fight. He’s since won ten straight.
In Carter, reigning Spanish champ, Ziani face a good challenger but Carter is relatively untested and is in tough in this one.
EU middleweight champ Marten Arsumanjan (11-1-2) retained the title Friday (May 28) night in Berlin with a hardfought split draw against Thomas Piccirillo (8-0-3) in a voluntary defesce.
Next up is mandatory challenger Marcos Nader (23-1-1) from Austria. Nader was once with Team Sauerland but then returned to the amateurs but is now back with the pros.
…
First Kerman Lejarraga pulled out as official challenger for the vacant EU super welterweight title (to become official challenger for the EBU title) and now the other co-challenger Orlando Fiordigiglio has done the same.
As it is now Frenchman Joffrey Jacob (21-1-1) and German Jama Saidi (19-2) are co-challengers for the vacant title with June 16 as deadline for purse bids.
….
BILD in Germany reported what seems to be a completely verified account of an ugly story involving German light heavyweight Alexander “German Nightmare” Kage (4-0 at the time) and his fight against Finn Janne Forsman (22-14) that was on for May 1 in Gersthofen with Forsman’s agent Markus Lammi as source.
According to this story – Kage, acting on his own, arranged for the meeting with Forsman, a decent fighter but with a long list of losses as of late, to take part in a fixed fight and there was even a contract between the parties with the choreography of the “fight” lined out.
Forsman would, according to this story, make Kage look good in the first round but only punch lightly and then early in the second get knocked out. For this he would have received 1,500 Euro – but if he failed to comply with the contract he and Lammi were to pay Kage 20,000 Euro.
Lammi played along but made it clear to Forsman that he under no circumstances should take part in this but instead go ahead with the bout and knock Kage out while he informed the German Federation (the BDB) about what was about to go down.
As it was, Kage got cold feet, cancelled the fight, and instead brought in an opponent from the Georgian Republic and won easily (as he usually does) on a show sanctioned by the German Boxing Association (GBA).
Kage, self promoted and self financed, claims innocence to BILD and on social media and points out that the contract with Foresman was never signed.