Euro News

By Per-Ake Persson

Former EBU heavyweight champ Erkan Teper (15-0 or 14-0-0-1) returns to action after almost a year out on Sunday (July 3) in Lueneburg (Germany) and take on American Derrick Rossy (30-11).

Teper (pictured) was suspended for two years by the EBU after failing a doping test after winning the EBU title July 17, 2015, with a second round knockout over David Price. This suspension is still in effect and is supposed to be respected by the EBU members but in real life it only blocks Teper from EBU sanctioned fights.

The German EBU member, the BDB, suspended Teper for a year counting from July 17, 2015, but it must be said that there were big questionmarks surrounding the whole affair and there has apparently been a lot of legal work done between the involved parties and now Teper is a non-suspended fighter – at least as far as the BDB goes. As for the results against Price it was changed by some to a No Contest but not by all and only shows that professional boxing needs unified rules regardless of countries, federations or titles and a standard procedure for doping tests.

The show in Lueneburg is promoted by PSP-Boxing and as Teper was a late addition he don't appear on the posters announcing the show.  The rest of the bill is made up by PSP prospects such as heavyweight Ilja Mezencev (11-1).

********************

Tickets for the "Arctic Rumble" at the Spectrum in Oslo, Norway, are selling fast and a spokesman for First Lady Promotion says that around 7500 of the 10 000 tickets for sale at this moment are gone. The only fighter announced for what is the first professional boxing event in Norway since 1980 is Cecilia Braekhus. There will be four fights on the bill and musical Entertainment.

********************

Many pros have talked about trying to qualify for the Olympics later this summer but most have stayed with that. Italy will however send two decent pros to Venezuela for qualifications this weekend in lightweight Massimiliano Ballisai (20-3) and featherweight Carmine Tommasone (15-0).

Per-Åke Persson