The fight for the vacant EBU heavyweight title between Joe "Juggernaut" Joyce (10-0) and Marco Huck (41-5-1) will go ahead on January 11 in Hannover (Germany) - at least according to the EBU. The fight is promoted by Huck Service Gmbh (headed by Marco´s brother Kenan) who won purse bids October 16 with an offer for 480,000 Euro - but the date s not yet officially confirmed by Huck & Co and there is no venue announced either.
The EBU have a set for of rules for the procedure following a purse bid that aren´t followed very strictly but the norm is that date and site are announced two weeks after the purse bid date with the fight taking place inside two months from this date so one can imagine there is some pressure on the Huck brothers to get it together asap.
Former WBA, WBO and EBU champ, 41-year old Juergen Braehmer (51-3), headlines the "German Edition" show in Hamburg December 21 and it´s now announced that it will be against fellow-German Juergen Doberstein (25-3-1). Doberstein returned in August after exactly a year out.
Braehmer doesn´t fight often but is busy as a trainer and has his own gym in Schwerin where he lives. In the chief support, Tina Rupprecht defends the WBC minimumweight title against Catalina Diaz.
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AGON Sports had a good weekend with wins for all their fighters on Saturday night in Berlin. Jack Culcay (27-4) beat previously unbeaten Jama Saidi (16-1) to win the vacant WBO Euro title. Culcay reported afterwards that he had no problems making the 154 limit and that he and his family had turned to a vegan diet since October.
At middleweight Bjoern Schicke (16-0-1) outscored Spaniard Adasat Rodriguez (18-9-2) to win the vacant EU belt.
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Frenchman Karim Guerfi (29-4) won the EBU title by stopping Georges Ory (11-3-1) in the eleventh round Saturday night in St Nazaire. It´s the third time that Guerfi holds EBU 118 lb title. He´s also challenged for the WBA and IBO titles but came up short.
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Turkish heavyweight Umut Camkiran (13-0) defended the vacant EE-EU title by stopping Mirko Tintor (15-4-1) in Istanbul Sunday night. Tintor is a decent fighter but tends to weigh in much too heavy and this fight was no exception as he weighed in at well over 300 lbs.
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SES "Team Czech Republic" stage a show November 30 in Kladno with WBC female champ at atomweight Fabiana Bytyqi defending the title against Ana Arrazola from Mexico. Czech heavyweight Tomas Salek, light heavy Michael Eifert and middleweight Mario Jassmann are all featured on the undercard and Stanislav Eschner and Marek Andrysek clash in a fight for the national super middle title. The Czech SES stars are trained by former EBU superwelter champ Lukas Konecny.
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Igor Mikhalkin (23-2) and Callum Johnson (18-1) are now official challengers for the vacant EBU 175 lb title. The EBU have set December 10 as deadline for purse bids. The title became vacant when Dominic Boesel beat Sven Fornling to win the IBO and WBA interim titles, but Mikhalkin has been waiting for this chance for some time.
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Heavyweight Robert Helenius returns to action in a low key comeback after the devastating loss to Gerald Washington in the summer: Helenius takes on Brazilian Mateus Roberto Osorio in Narva (Estonia) this coming weekend. Osorio has been seen in Europe before and anything but a KO win for the Nordic Nightmare would be a major upset.
After the Osorio fight, Helenius is already booked for a return to the United States but against who isn´t clear yet... trainer Johan Lindstrom says there are several good opponents being discussed including a rematch with Washington, where Helenius was ahead on points when staggered by a right hand and left himself wide open for a follow up and it was lights out.