A big night of boxing is lined
up for May 4 at the Multiversum
arena in Vienna-suburb Schwechat,
featuring two of Austria’s most
popular fighters, Gogi Knezevic
and Timy Shala, in World Boxing
Federation Intercontinental
title fights.
Knezevic (24-4-1, 12 KOs) will
be taking on rugged and
experienced Hungarian Jozsef
Matolcsi (32-19-1, 20 KOs) for
the vacant Middleweight
championship, while the
undefeated Shala (15-0, 6 KOs)
will contest the vacant Light
Heavyweight crown against Tomas
Adamek (19-7-1, 7 KOs) from the
Czech Republic.
Appropriately nicknamed “Lionheart”,
former Austrian national
champion Knezevic is getting his
second shot at the title, as he
unexpectedly lost his first
opportunity in 2010 when German
underdog Viktor Dick upset the
applecart in Vienna.
Since then Knezevic (33) has won
six of seven fights, with the
loss being in a regional title
fight to up-and-comer Goekalp
Oezekler, and he will
undoubtedly be looking to put on
a show in front of what will be
a partisan hometown-crowd.
Former WBF World
title-challenger Jozsef Matolcsi
has shared a ring with lots of
big names, fought for and won a
slew of championships, and one
would be hard pressed to find
many Europeans with more
experience at top level than the
37-year-old from Budapest.
While it could easily be argued
that his best days are behind
him, it was only last July that
Matolcsi gave Frenchman Denis
Saioni all he could handle
before losing on points in a
European title fight, and coming
off a victory in his latest
outing he will be confident that
he has a good chance to bring
home the belt.
In the evenings co-feature, Timy
“The Bomber” Shala (27) faces
his pro careers stiffest test in
another true veteran, Tomas
Adamek. While Shala’s biggest
night was winning the Austrian
title last summer, Adamek (32)
has, besides lifting the Czech
International title, fought for
the EU championship three times,
and challenged for various
regional belts.
In January 2012 Adamek proved
his worth when he took WBF
International Champion Denis
Simcic the full ten rounds, and
at times gave as good as he got
before coming up short on the
scorecards. Having also fought
excellent fighters such as
Antonio Brancalion, Vyacheslav
Uzelkov and Pawel Glazewski, he
will not be intimidated by the
prospect of going to war with
Shala in his backyard.
The Knezevic vs. Matolcsi and
Shala vs. Adamek World Boxing
Federation Intercontinental
title fights on May 4 at the
Multiversum in Schwechat,
Austria will be promoted by
Box-Team Vienna. On the card
will also be a female European
title clash between Eva
Voraberger and Polina Pencheva.
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