The wait is over. After having won the rights to stage Yoan Pablo Hernandez’ (27-1, 13 KOs) mandatory against Alexander Alekseev (24-2-1, 20 KOs), Team Sauerland is proud to announce that the IBF Cruiserweight World Championship is going to take place on November 23 at the brose Arena in Bamberg, Germany.
“This is going to be an instant classic,” promises Ulli Wegner, head coach of Hernandez. “It will be a clash between two world-class technicians.”
Hernandez is glad to defend the title he won versus American Steve Cunningham back in 2011 for a third time. “Finally I have my next title defense scheduled. I already wanted to fight this February but while being in training camp for this bout, I broke my left hand in sparring,” said the 28-year-old champion, who is also recognized as the Cruiserweight World Champion by “The Ring Magazine”. “After such a long break I see some hard work coming up against Alekseev. But as a world champion you have to fight what is set in front of you. He earned his mandatory spot so I am happy to face him on November 23.”
Alekseev himself is highly motivated to dethrone the defending IBF-titlist. “This will be the most important fight of my career to date,” assures the 32-year-old challenger. “Everything works the way it should be in training and I promise that I will take this chance and beat Hernandez!”
Tickets for the big fight night on November 23 in Bamberg, Germany can be purchased at www.eventim.de.
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.
