The European Boxing Championships start this week in the Turkish capital Ankara and for many European boxers will be the first step on the road to qualification for next year’s London 2012 Olympic Games.
One noticeable absentee from the tournament will be Italy’s Clemente Russo. The 28 year-old is the only European boxer to book a quota place in London already, through the WSB Individual Championships last month in China, but will miss the European Championships due to injury.WSB boxers from all three conferences will be competing in Ankara and despite the WSB only having five weight categories compared with AIBA’s ten, the 64kg AIBA division will be the only one in Ankara without a representative from the World Series of Boxing.
Poland’s Lukasz Maszczyk will be looking to rebound after ending his season with the Pohang Poseidons with a disappointing 0-6 record. The 26-year-old southpaw is the only WSB boxer registered in the 46-49kg division and will shed a full 5 kilos from his 54kg WSB competition weight to compete in Ankara.
Italy has the most WSB boxers in its national squad, with reigning world champion Domenico Valentino (60kg) and Vincenzo Picardi (52kg) are strong favorites in their weight divisions.
Reigning World Champion Valentino will face competition from WSB boxer and world no. 3 Koba Pkhakadze (Baku Fires and Georgia) in the 60kg division but Valentino has the better form on paper, with 4-1 WSB record compared with the Georgian’s 1-5.
Jahyn Vittorio Parrinello is also well-placed to make a move in the 56kg division but will have to contend with two other strong WSB boxers, world champion Detelin Dalakliev (Memphis Force and Bulgaria) and John Joe Nevin (Paris United and Ireland), for a stab at a title.
Mahamed Nurudzinau of Belarus walked away from season one of the WSB with a respectable 3-1 record. The 30-year-old is the only WSB representative in the 69kg division in Ankara and will be dropping down from his WSB weight of 75kg for the competition.
Victor Cotiujanschii of the Pohang Poseidons and Moldova is the top seeded WSB boxer in the AIBA 75kg division, with Italy’s Luca Podda (Dolce & Gabbana Milano Thunder) and France’s Michel Tavares (Paris United) completing the middleweight trio.
The 81kg division has the biggest WSB delegation, including two boxers each from Dolce & Gabbana Milano Thunder and Paris United. Paris is represented by Abdelkader Bouhenia, competing for France, and Hrvoje Sep, competing for Croatia. Milan is represented by Bosko Draskovic, competing for Montenegro and Nikolajs Grisunins, competing for Latvia. Hungary’s Imre Szello, who finished the regular season with a knock-out in the final week, will be looking to start in Ankara as he left off in Memphis.
Denys Poyatsyka (Baku Fires and Ukraine) and Mihail Muntean (Pohang Poseidons and Moldova) are the only two WSB representatives in the 91kg division. Poyatsyka moves up from the WSB’s 85kg light heavyweight division, while all other WSB heavyweights will compete in AIBA’s +91kg division.
The super heavyweight title could be decided by a battle between youth and experience, with Paris United’s young Youth Olympic champion Tony Yoka, who is only 18 years old, and Italy’s Roberto Cammarelle, 30, both among the top favourites.
