Ringside guest Roy Jones, jr.: "Markus impressed me!"

At tonight's big ARENA-show at Zenith-Kulturhalle in Munich three-time WBC super middleweight champion Markus Beyer beat Murat Mahmudov from Russia by decision after 17 months of ring absence. All three judges scored the one-sided eight-round bout 80:72 in favour of "Boom Boom" Beyer.

"It feels good to be back in the ring", stated Beyer. "This fight brings back the old confidence. My main goal was not to get hit. That worked out perfectly. Now I'm ready for bigger fights."

Maybe the next one will already be against US-superstar Roy Jones, jr. The long-time pound-for-pound-champion followed an invitation of ARENA-CEO Ahmet Öner to cross the pond and be special ringside guest at the show in Munich.

"I really liked what I saw tonight", stated RJ. "All fights have been very good. Especially Markus impressed me with excellent hand speed and good movement. He's a great boxer."

Regarding negotiations about a possible bout he added "Well, I'm certainly not only here for my looks..."

ARENA-CEO Ahmet Öner: "I'm very proud and happy to have Roy here and I think the fact that he came over to Germany speaks for itself. He is a businessman and the negotiations will not be easy for me. But I try my best to make this fight happen in Germany."

Asked in which weight class the two former champions would meet Jones, jr. stated: "I don't care. I've been world champion from middle- up to heavyweight. I'll take the fight at any weight you want."

Beyer's response (laughing): "Well, heavyweight might be a little too much for me - but somewhere between super middle and light heavy should work out."

Solis scores 8th win in 8th pro-fight

Olympic gold medallist Odlanier Solis left Cisse Salif from Las Vegas withour any chance. "La Sombra" dominated his opponent with one of the best performances of his young professional career impressing the audience including special ringside guest Roy Jones, jr.

The former pound-for-pound-champion congratulated the Cuban heavyweight right after the fight and later told the press what he liked most about Solis: "He's got a very good eye, excellent reflexes and outstanding hand speed – probably the fastest hands of all heavyweights at moment" stated Jones, jr. "Solis is a wonderful prospect and an up-and-coming force. I am pretty sure that I saw a future champion who will have major impact on the division."

The three-time world amateur champion clearly won all eight rounds to take home his eighth win in eight fights. Salif found no way through the strong and close defence hardly hitting the Cuban at all though he is a very experienced and tough opponent. The man from Mali (22-10-2, 20 k.o.) had almost beaten Samoan powerhouse David Tua in 2005 only losing by a contestable split decision.

"That's something I really liked about the whole show", stated Roy Jones, jr. "Ahmet Öner doesn't pick any cupcakes for his prospects. He throws them in against strong opposition at very early stages of their careers to prepare them for the rocks they have to face in title fights. You won't find many promoters in the world playing the game like this but to me it's the best way to do it."

Sinan Samil Sam defends WBC Mediterranean Championship

WBC Mediterranean heavyweight champion Sinan Samil Sam defended his title against Ratko Draskovic from Montenegro. "The Bull from Bosporus" knocked down his opponent three times in round two so referee Daniel Van den Wiele had no other choice but to stop the fight.

Sinan: "This was a good test for my European title shot against Matt Skelton. I showed that I still got what it takes to knock out strong opponents. Now I will go on to recapture my title."

Selcuk Aydin victorious as well

ARENA's strong welterweight prospect Selcuk Aydin scored his 14th win in his 14th pro-fight by unanimous decision over strong and experienced Farkhad Bakirov (before the fight 24-2-2) from Uzbekistan. Selcuk couldn't step up to his nickname "Mini-Tyson" because Bakirov managed to escape his powerful escapes but the "thunderstorm from the Black Sea" clearly dominated his opponent chasing him around the ring for the whole 8 rounds.

Ahmet Öner: "These are exactly the fights Selcuk needs to improve and develop. It was important for him to go the distance against a strong opponent. Now he is ready to go for the WBC International championship on April 25th in his hometown Trabzon."

The other results:

Heavyweight, 8 rounds
Konstantin Airich and Alex Mazikin draw

Heavyweight, 4 rounds
Edmund Gerber beats Ergin Solmaz by unanimous decision

Cruiserweight, 8 rounds
Armin Dollinger beats Kai Kurzawa by tko in round 2

Welterweight, 6 rounds
Michael Schubov beats Alexander Lykov by ko in round 2

The "Dancing Destroyer" once more did what he does best. In Halle (Saale) Herbie Hide "destroyed" Rüdiger May from Cologne (Germany) to defend his WBC International cruiserweight championship. Hide had May down once in the first round. After 1:47 minute in round 2 referee Massimo Barrovecchio (Italy) stopped the fight because May was not able to defend himself against Herbie's overwhelming attacks.

Herbie: "I am a warrior. Warriors go to war to kill - and that's what I did! Now I got a message for David Haye: Don't go up to heavyweight! I've been there and done that! Come and fight me! Wherever whenever - I'm ready for you! I'll beat you up like you've never been beaten up before!"

Local hero Steffen Kretschmann won his first pro-title capturing the German international championship by stopping Latvia's Aleksejs Kosobokovs in the 7th. Kosobokovs suffered a bad cut early in the fight which keeped on opening up. In 19 pro-fights the Latvian was stopped for the first time. For Kretsche it was the 11th win in his 11th fight including 10 stoppages.

ARENA-CEO Ahmet Öner: "It's always hard to fight in front of your home crowd because the expectations are extremely high. Steffen started slowly but finished the fight in a good way. To me he is the best German heavyweight and he could already fight and beat anybody in the world except the reigning world champions. I'd like to see him against Luan Krasniqi soon. That would be a good test and help him on his way to the top."

In the third title fight of the night "Super" Sergej Sorokin won the WBC international super lightweight championship by stopping Kanat Kartenbaev in 6.

German cruiserweight prospect Tino Groß scored his 4th win in his 4th pro-fight by knocking out Dariusz Balla from Poland in the 1st. Turkish Olympic silver medallist Atagün Yalcinkaya won his pro-debut against Sergey Tasimov by t.k.o. in the 3rd.

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA

Arena Box Promotions from Hamburg, Germany in association with DeCubas Presents, LLC are proud to announce an all star boxing card to be held on Friday February 22nd.

Doors open 6PM, first fight at 7PM featuring 2004 Olympic Gold Medal Winner from Guantanamo, Cuba and Undefeated Featherweight Yuriorkis  “El Ciclon” Gamboa (8-0, 7 k.o.s, No. 8 WBC) vs. Johnnie Edwards (13-1-1, 7 k.o.s, No. 12 WBA). 

Also on the card is 2004 Gold Medal Winner from Cuba and Undefeated Flyweight Yan Barthelemy (4-0). The other televised fight will be Richard Gutierrez (21-1, No. 10 IBF) from Columbia vs. Miguel Angel Vasquez (20-1, 9 k.o.s). The undercard will feature local fighters Dyah Davis (11-1, Light heavyweight), Kasim Howard (6-0, Heavyweight), and Erik Leander (1-0, Heavyweight).

The fights will be held at Xtreme Indoor Karting in Ft. Lauderdale 5300 Powerline Road, off of I-95 and Commercial Blvd., Phone number for tickets 954-491-6265. Ticket Prices $200/$150/$100/$50/$25

Press Conference: The Official “NIGHT OF THE OLMPIANS” Press Conference will be open to the Public and to the Press on Monday, February 11, 2007, at 12 PM, at the Xtreme Indoor Karting Facility, 5300 Powerline Road.

For more information visit www.nightoftheolympians.com

Radio-Spot for the "NIGHT OF THE OLYMPIANS"