WBA Refuses To Sanction Baye-Earl

By Per Ake Persson

Souleyman M´Baye´s planned defense of the WBA jr. welterweight title against Brit Graham Earl that was on for February 17 in London, is off because the WBA refused to approve it. There will be purse bids for M´Baye´s mandatory defense against Universum-promoted Ukrainian Andreas Kotelnik on January 16 in Panama City.

Former WBO middleweight champ Armand Krajnc has been denied a license by the Swedish pro boxing commission at a recent meeting, due to the injuries he sustained in the loss to Sergey Tatevosyan back in 2002. Krajnc suffered a subdural haematoma (a bleeding between the brain and the skull). He was declared medically fit by the German and later Austrian Federations and challenged Sven Ottke in March of 2004 before retiring. Late 2005 rumors began to circulate that the ex-champ wanted to make a comeback, and in the spring of last year Armand was in full training. Krajnc was to have been the big drawing card for New Sweden Boxing Promotion´s show in Gothenburg on January 27.

Kai Kauramaki will face Pole Andrzej Butowicz for the UBC I/C super middleweight title on Saturday in Porvoo, Finland.

Patrik Akerlund was at one time one of the brightest prospects in Swedish amateur boxing and won both the junior and senior titles the same season. Akerlund then faded away from boxing but returned in 96 as a pro and went 3-3-1 through 99. Last year the now 36-year old farmer and father of three wanted to return. He landed a promotional deal with Steel Ring in Finland and was on for a show in September. It all came to an end before it even had begun when he was informed by dr Gunnar Ekman in Stockholm that the MRI showed big irregularities. Akerlund was told he was facing a future with Parkinson´s and had to stop boxing immediately to prevent further damage.

Akerlund was devastated, threw away his boxing equiment, had his kids stop boxing and started preparing for a future with Parkinson´s. As he did, he contacted the local hospital for further checkups - but was declared medically fit. There were no signs of any kind of brain damage - the small change that perhaps could be detected was probably due to age and not related to boxing. Akerlund is now back in the gym but has dropped his comeback plans. Dr Ekman has admitted the mistake and read a written statement on Swedish TV but couldn´t really explain what had gone wrong.