Former EBU and Spanish welterweight and super welterweight champ Kerman Lejarraga (34-3) has announced his retirement from boxing. Lejarraga was all set to fight Pole Przemyslaw Runowski (20-2) on April 29 in Madrid.
However, yesterday Runowski withdrew from the fight and today Lejarraga announced his retirement citing various health problems after a long and tough career as the reason.
Lejarraga turned pro in 2013 and was unbeaten until he walked into then unheralded Russian David Avanesyan in 2019 and was stopped in nine. In the rematch he was stopped in one. He moved up to super welter and became European champ again but never really looked the same as he had before the Avanesyan fights. He lost to Englishman James Metcalf in his last fight.
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Just two days after French promoter Yohann Zahoui and Y12 announced that Enock Poulsen’s mandatory defense of the EBU super lightweight title against Franck Petitjean was postponed again and this time to May 27 (from April 29) – and now it’s announced by the EBU that the fight will go back to purse bids.
The deadline is May 3.
Poulsen vs Petitjean II has now been postponed a number of times since September of last year. Another strange thing about this mess is that another French fighter, Massi Tachour, is the mandatory challenger for the winner – but he hasn’t fought for close to two years.
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Heavyweights Sanel Hasanovic (6-0-1) and Lukas Fajk (7-1) clash for the vacant IBO Continental title on Saturday (April 22) in Falkensee (Germany). In the chief support of this Kuc Boxing Promotion show heavyweight Dusan Veletic (6-1-1) meets tough journeyman Kamil Sokolowski (11-27-3). The undercard features Cuban heavyweight Carlos Castillo Rodriguez (1-0).
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SES and Blanko Sports join forces for a show billed as “It’s time to say goodbye” May 6 in Berlin. Saying goodbye is 38-year old German middleweight Ronny Gabel (30-7-1) who will say goodbye to active boxing against Ilias Essaoudi (21-2) in a fight for the vacant WBO European title.
In the chief support light heavy Nick Hannig (11-1-1) takes on Przemyslaw Gorgon (16-10-1) with the vacant International German (BDB) title at stake.