by Nino Celic | Sat. Nov. 6, 2010

WBO Cruiserweight Champion Marco Huck will face #1 ranked challenger Denis Lebedev on December 18, in Berlin. Huck’s fifth title defense should be his toughest challenge so far,
Lebedev has a reputation as a vicious puncher and is unbeaten in 21 outings.

“We are very happy to stage this fight in Germany”, said Sauerland CEO Chris Meyer. “There is no doubt that this will be a spectacular fight.”

The German champion is also looking forward to this fight.

“I expect a very tough battle," said Huck. "We are both boxers that go for the KO I am very happy to fight in Berlin once again, because I know that I can count on the support of the people in the Max-Schmeling-Halle.”

Vitali Klitschko's request to make a voluntary defense against Tomasz Adamek in March at New York's Madison Square Garden (40th anniversary of Ali-Frazier I) has been denied by the WBC at their convent in Cancun. Instead Klitschko has to face the winner of the WBC-Eliminator between Odlanier Solis and Ray Austin within 100 days.

“We are very happy with the solution,” said Solis’ head promoter Ahmet Öner. “We wanted to clarify that Solis will be Vitali’s next opponent because word is that he might retire after his next fight. We wanted to make it very clear that Solis is not one of the Povetkins or Hayes who duck the Klitschkos and wait for them to retire. Solis has been waiting for a long time to get his hands on Vitali and he wants to be the man to take the championship belt from him and actually retire him from boxing. Vitali tried everything he could to avoid the fight because he knows that Solis is one of very few fighters in the world who can actually beat him. So now Solis will focus on knocking out Ray Austin and then go on to become champion of the world.”

EBU-Heavyweight-Champion Alexander Dimitrenko will make his first title defense against former champ Albert Sosnowski in Germany. Universum won the purse bid against Sosnowski’s English promoter Matchroom, outbidding them by over 70,000 Euros. The date and name of the venue have yet to be named.

Former World Heavyweight Champion Ruslan Chagaev, Denis Boytsov and Manuel Charr will all appear on the same night on the Universum fight card November 19th in Hamburg.

Universum’s Klaus-Peter Kohl said, “We want to show the fans some great tune up fights for the big upcoming tasks of 2011. Ruslan is getting ready for David Haye, Denis Boytsov wants to test his hand, that he had surgery on. The boxing fans in Hamburg didn’t get to see Ruslan live for four years, Denis for three years. So it’s about time."