German-Turkish heavyweight Agit Kabayel (23-0 or 25-2 depending on if you include the Bigger is Better Tournament fights or not) is back as EBU champion after a scoring a third round stoppage of Croatian Agron Smakici (19-2) on Saturday night in Bochum.
Kabayel was hurt in the second and with only the ropes holding him up referee Mark Lyson issued the mandatory eight count. Kabayel came back well and pressured Smakici finally knocking him down in the third. Smakici got up but had nothing left and the fight was stopped.
Agit Kabayel’s first stint as EBU champ ended when he relinquished the title to go for bigger fights and there was a deal with Top Rank but nothing materialized and now he is back where he started.
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Swedish heavyweights Awadh Tamim and Pezhman Seifkhani (15-1) are likely to do it again in the near future. Their fight this past Saturday was a minor classic, a brawl of the likes seldom seen with both men whaling away on unsteady legs. Tamim won in a big upset coming back after being floored in the second.
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Former IBF female featherweight titlist Sarah Mahfoud (12-1) was back in the ring on March 4 in Albertslund (Denmark) in her first fight since losing to Amanda Serrano and secured a wide points win over German Lara Ochmann (9-2) and won the WBC Silver title.
A world title fight is in the works for her next fight which is likely go ahead in May in Denmark.
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Italian light heavyweight Daniele Scardina, who suffered a serious head injury during a sparring session last week and had immediate surgery, has now been taken off the respirator and is breathing on his own, reports boxeringweb – but no further details were given.
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EBU bantamweight champion Daniele Lorusso (20-4-2) makes a voluntary defense of the title on May 20 in Monza (Italy) against Thomas Essomba (11-8-1) on a event promoted by Promo Boxe Italia headed by Mario Loreni.
Lorusso, who with his heavily tattooed face is a man you can’t miss in a crowd, won the title by beating Sebastian Perez on a knockout in the 12th and final round.
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Former world champ Felix Sturm is back behind bars, reports BILD. Sturm is to serve two years and four months for tax evasion and violation of the anti-doping law.
The 44-year old was back in the ring as late as February 18 when he beat Sukru Altay on a controversial decision. He was arrested on February 28.
The sentence itself stems back to a verdict from 2019 when Sturm first was in custody for eight months. He was later sentenced to three years in prison but after an appeal it was reduced to two years and four months.
He was first charged with tax evasion for the amount of 5.8 million Euros but it was later reduced to only one million Euro. As for the doping charges, they stem all the way back to Sturm’s fight against Fedor Chudinov in 2016.