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Things doesn’t always go as
planned, don’t judge a book by
its cover, and it’s not about
how you start but how you
finish. The world is full of
sayings and clichés, and several
of them can be attached to the
up-coming World Boxing
Federation Middleweight World
title fight on February 11 in
Hamburg, Germany.
Cagri Ermis (12-10-2, 4 KOs) was
originally scheduled to
challenge now former WBF World
Champion Karama Nyilawila last
December. First the show was
postponed when Ermis suffered an
injury, and later Nyilawila,
overdue a defense, decided not
to honor his contract and
instead take a non-title fight
in Tanzania. The title was
declared vacant, and Ermis will
now take on Portugal’s Vitor Sa
(26-6, 5 KOs) for the
championship.
Currently managed by former
European Champion Oktay Urkal,
it’s fair to say that
28-year-old Ermis had an
up-and-down beginning to his pro
career, going 3-7-2 in his first
twelve outings.
But fighting very stern
opposition “on the road”, he
learned his craft and always
went the distance while putting
up good fights against class
acts such as Vilmos Balog
(13-0), Ante Bilic (19-2) and
Predrag Radosevic (17-0).
Things started to change for the
better in 2009. After losing to
Radosevic in Montenegro, Ermis
scored three consecutive
victories before dropping
another decision, this time to
Danish-Lebanese contender Ahmed
Kaddour in Denmark. He quickly
returned to winning ways by
beating countrymen Piotr
Gasparov and Baker Barakat, the
latter for a minor regional
title.
In March 2010 Ermis had his
biggest fight so far when he
travelled to France for a clash
with future WBA World Champion
Hassan N´Dam N´Jikam, 22-0 at
the time. Ermis lost, but again
put up a spirited performance
and gained invaluable experience
that will no doubt come in handy
against Vitor Sa.
Ermis has won his last four
bouts, one of them against then
11-0 Rafael Bejeran. Bejeran is
now the WBO European
Middleweight Champion, and has
not lost since, so it is obvious
that Ermis is much better than
his modest record suggests.
Like Ermis, Vitor Sa has mixed
with some of the best
middleweights Europe has to
offer, and, besides three losses
in learning-fights early in his
career, only they have been able
to beat the now 38-year-old
Portuguese. Each time it was in
his opponent’s back-yard, so Sa
is no stranger to going abroad
for big fights:
His last three setbacks were in
title fights to former world
champion Kreshnik Qato in
Albania, former world
title-challenger Gennady
Martirosyan in Russia, and the
top-class Denis Saioni in
France. Coming off two
victories, Sa will argue that he
has faced better opponents than
Ermis, and the German will be
full of confidence that his
career will continue in the
upward spiral he has found
himself in the last few years.
The Cagri Ermis vs. Vitor Sa
World Boxing Federation World
Middleweight title fight will be
promoted by Erol Ceylan and his
EC Boxpromotion at the Braamkamp
1 arena in Hamburg, and will go
out live to millions of viewers
across Europe on Eurosport.
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