Gutknecht to defend European Light Heavyweight Title against Di Giacomo on July 16
European Light Heavyweight Champion Eduard Gutknecht (21-1, 9 KOs) will make a first defence of his title on July 16 when he takes on Lorenzo Di Giacomo (41-4-1, 19 KOs) in Munich. Gutknecht joined Team Sauerland at the beginning of the year and clinched the European title with an eighth-round TKO victory over Danny McIntosh last month. “I have big plans for the future,” Gutknecht said. “I have worked hard to become European champion. By successfully defending my title in Munich, I want to further climb in the rankings and get myself into a position for a world title shot.”
Gutknecht suffered the only loss of his career in April 2010 when WBO Super-Middleweight Champion Robert Stieglitz defeated him on points. He has won three straight since. “It was great to become European Champion in just my second fight for Team Sauerland,” Gutknecht stated. “It is a great motivation as I know that there are big things coming up for me.
It was a great first step and I will keep working hard to accomplish the next goal on my way to the top.”
In the main event of the night, WBO Cruiserweight Champion Marco Huck faces former champion Hugo Hernan Garay in what will already be his seventh title defence.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
