By Alexey Sukachev, April, 13, 2007
According to the official portal of Russian Professional Boxing Federation, the WBA interim cruiserweight belt will finally be for grabs on June, 16, in Budapest, Hungary, when the current interim champion Valery Brudov (33-1, 25 KOs) is going to defend his title for the first time against German Firat Arslan (26-3-1, 18 KOs). The main event of the evening will see national boxing hero Zsolt Erdei versus an opponent, still to be announced, for the WBO light heavyweight title.
“There hasn’t been much in my life since I knocked out [Luis] Pineda for the WBA belt last December”, told Brudov in his media outing with ‘Ves Sport’ agency. “I took a short rest, and then started my preparation in usual mode. The fight [against Arslan] was first scheduled on March. Then the situation had changed, so the bout was re-scheduled for the April, 27, and now it’s postponed once again. This surely affects my mental conditions, as I’m really tired of waiting. For God sake, I was warned about those postponements beforehand, so I was able to adapt my training regimen without getting deep into preparation. I tend to spend a couple of weeks in my hometown of Pskov, and then move to St. Petersburg to continue my preparation there”. Brudov has also given thoughts about his future opponent, “I watched after him in the past. He matched himself in my contention pretty long ago. Firat is a tough guy with the tight defense. I must be hundred percent ready and I need to stay clever in the ring as this is not the walk in the park”.
Firat Arslan, 36, a bitter rival for Russian cruisers, is a mandatory challenger by the WBA ratings. He scored the only blemish in Vadim Tokarev’s resume by holding highly regarded pugilist to a draw back in 2003. Last October Arslan scored his most significant win to date by stopping then undefeated contender Grigory Drozd, also from Russia, in five rounds of their WBA eliminator. Arslan also possesses victories over notable contenders Alexander Petkovich and Carlos Cruzat.
Brudov, 30, captured his belt via eleventh-round TKO of Panama Luis Pineda on December, 2. Despite all of his victories Valery is almost unknown outside of Russia and France and doesn’t capture much attention even in his homeland. He is one of the ridiculous trio of world champions, claimed by the WBA, with Jean-Mark Mormeck, being a ‘superchampion’, and Virgill Hill, being a ‘regular champion’.
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