Sam-Skelton Set For May 30

Turkish hero Sinan Samil Sam,30-4-0-(16), and Matt Skelton,21-2-0-(18), will fight for the vacant European heavyweight title in Istanbul, Turkey on May 30.

Sam’s promoter Ahmet Öner, head of Hamburg based Arena Box-Promotion, won the purse bid. “The Bull from Bosporus” wants to recapture “his” title against Skelton, who to Ruslan Chagaev for the WBA heavyweight title in January. Sam was crowned European Champion between 2002 and 2004 before losing the title controversially to Luan Krasniqi.
 
“I know that this is my last chance”, said Sinan Samil Sam. “By winning the European crown I might even get a shot at the world title. To fight in front of my home crowd means a lot to me – especially because I got to make up for the loss against Oliver McCall in Ankara last year.”
 
On June 16, 2007 Öner had promoted the first professional boxing show in Turkey in almost 30 years featuring the main event WBC International championship between McCall and Sam. Now the show on May 30 will be the second in only four weeks. On April 25 Arena’s “Mini-Tyson” Selcuk Aydin will fight for the vacant WBC International welterweight championship against South African Lucky Lewele in his hometown of Trabzon near the Black Sea.
 
“The Turkish people want to see professional boxing”, said Arena Ceo Ahmet Öner. “The show in Ankara left them fired up begging for more. They receive us with open arms – especially because I got all their national heroes: Sinan, Selcuk and Olympic silver medallist Atagün Yalcinkaya.”

March 19, 2008