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Germany’s Markus Beyer, former
three-time world super
middleweight champion, has
accepted an invitation for the
WBF World Convention and thus
joins ex-light heavyweight champ
Donny ‘Golden Boy’ Lalonde of
Canada as guests of honour.
The convention, of course, takes
place from Sept. 5 – 8 in
Saarbruecken, Germany and is
highlighted by a huge
championship boxing event staged
in association with DOG Event
Boxing.
Former Olympian Beyer, nicknamed
‘Boom Boom’, first became world
champion in 1999, when he
ventured to England to relieve
defending titlist Richie
Woodhall surprisingly of his
belt by a unanimous decision.
However, about half a year later
in his second defence, another
Brit, Glenn Catley, stopped
Beyer in the ultimate round,
when the German was just two
minutes away from retaining his
title.
But southpaw Beyer was far from
being done. Three years and nine
wins later he had regained his
world crown, this time taking
the title off Canadian defending
champion Eric Lucas. Again,
though, his reign proved a
rather short one, because after
retaining against Danny Green
and André Thysse, Beyer lost a
rather surprising split decision
to Cristian Sanavia. In the
immediate rematch four months
later (Oct. 2004), the now
42-year-old Beyer became the
first ever German fighter to win
a world title three times by
knocking Sanavia clean out in
six rounds.
Markus proceeded to retain his
title a further five times,
against notable challengers such
as Green again and Sakio Bika,
until running into fellow
champion Mikkel Kessler in a
unification fight, which the
Dane won in three rounds.
Injuries kept Beyer from making
yet another run and after a
farewell win in 2008, he called
it a day and retired as one of
the most successful German
boxers of all time.
“I am delighted to be invited to
the WBF Convention and look
forward to meet Donny Lalonde
there, whom I watched fight many
times on television,” said
Markus Beyer. “I followed the
many fights closely which the
WBF had here in Germany and the
way they go about business is a
great credit to our sport. So
obviously, I’m happy to give my
support!.” |
