Press Release:Â Risum Boxing has finalized details for a September 8, 2006 show at Idraettens Hus in Vejle, Denmark, with local amateur hero Kim "Golden Boy" Poulsen as the main drawing-card in his professional debut. Sharing co-feature-billing will be undefeated Danish middleweight Fawaz Nasir (9-0) and 2004 Olympic quarterfinalist and undefeated lightweight pro Sam "Rocky" Rukundo (7-0). Poulsen has been hailed as one of the biggest talents in Danish amateur boxing, and turned down the opportunity to qualify for the 2008 Olympics in China, in favour of a professional career managed by Henrik Risum, saying, "I wanted someone young and ambitious to handle my professional career, and I feel that Henrik and I are a match made in heaven. I have great confidence in him, and he has great confidence in me."
Nasir, a man who has been plagued with several spells of inactivity in his career, is hoping to now finally get his career back on track, and the prospects of a step up in competition on the Vejle-show is something that excites the good-looking 26-year-old, who doubles as a professional model when he is not in the gym. "My managers have promised me that we are going to aim hard at getting me ranked, or at least steered towards some kind of title fight next year, and I am very happy about this. I hope to get a good, strong opponent in this up-coming fight, and then someone even better after that. I want to move to the next level, but of course I have to prove to everyone first that I can walk the walk and not just talk the talk," says Nasir.
Trained by former European champion James Cook, Rukundo is a high-quality prospect, with potential of following in the footsteps of his better-known Ugandan countrymen, and former world champions, Ayub Kalule, John Mugabi and Kassim Ouma. On September 8 he will step up in class, and hopefully be tested by who-ever Risum Boxing and manager Mickey Helliet decides to match him with.
With only seven professional fights so far, Rukundo still have some way to go before being ready to enter the world stage, but massive amateur experience, culminating with the quarter finals in the 2004 Olympics, gives the 26-yeal-old a good foundation that allows him to be moved quicker than other "rookie-pros". Rukundo have already gone ten rounds once, and is gaining something of a "crowd-pleaser" reputation.
Rukundo made his Danish debut on October 14 last year, when Risum Boxing promoted for the first time in Denmark. That show was surrounded by quite a bit of controversy, as Henrik Risum, who is licensed in Germany, exercised his EU constitutional right to let the card be sanctioned by the German federation (BDB), and the Danish Professional Boxing Federation (DPBF) did everything in their power to stop the show. In the end, the Danish Justice ministry, who has an outdated and EU-illegal law about professional boxing, sided with Risum, and it was expectedly determined that Danish boxers with valid German licenses can indeed box in Denmark, something that the DPBF also tried to argue against.
"What happened last year is in the past now, and I really don't feel like going down that road again. The DPBF did what they apparently found necessary, and I obviously did what I found necessary. But I am happy that I got it in writing from the justice ministry that the law is on my side, and, just to be sure, my lawyer recently got this confirmed with the ministry one more time. Now we look forward, not backwards," says Risum.
Another controversy surrounding last years show, and one that caught national media attention, was the fact that the DPBF had a paid, full-time employee of Team Palle, Denmark's biggest and most successful promotional company, actively represent them in their efforts to stop Risum Boxing's show. To top things off, it didn't make things less controversial that then-president Jess Andreassen refused to acknowledge the conflict of interest in this.
Tickets for the September 8 show can be purchased through
www.risumboxing.dk