Euro News

By Per-Ake Persson

There were no purse bids today (nov 21) in Rome for Kubrat Pulev's defence of the EBU heavyweight title against Pole Mariusz Wach. Instead Pulev relinquished the title to concentrate on his fight December 3 in Sofia against Samuel Peter for the vacant WBA Intercontinental crown..

Wach will now face the highest available contender for the vacant EBU title.

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Veteran Belorus / Spanish flyweight Valery Yanchy (pictured) have announced his retirement. Yanchy fought a number of times for the EBU title and won, drew and lost always in very close fights. However, last weekend the 39-year old lost a landslide decision to Vincent Legrand and decided this is it. Yanchy leaves the game with a record of 25-5-2.

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Danish supermiddle Patrick Nielsen (28-1) returns after over a year out in January of next year writes newsagency Ritzau. Nielsen beat Rudy Markussen in December of 2015 and was set to fight again in May but suffered a hand injury and have been out since. Nielsen is still ranked # 10 by the WBC and # 16 by the EBU. His sole loss came in a fight for the WBA interim title against Dmitry Chudinov.

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Univent, headed by Sebastian Acaries, will stage a big show December 17 in Saint Denis on the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. On WBA interim middleweight champion Alfonso Blanco (12-0) will defend the title against Hassan N'Dam (34-2).

It will be Blanco's first defence of the title he won over a year ago.  Also on the bill is some of the best French fighters such as middlweight Michel Soro (28-1-1), supermiddle Mickael Diallo (14-0-2) and cruiser Arsen Goulamirian (18-0).

Per-Åke Persson