Otherwise known for being the base of some of the worlds largest Champagne brands, boxing will take centre stage in Epernay, France on Saturday April 15. Two World Boxing Federation (WBF) title fights are co-featured on a show at the Hall des Sports Pierre Gaspard.
Local man Georges Beaupuis (27), bringing a 13-4 (2) record and riding a five-fight winning streak, is entering his first championship fight as he takes on former Spanish national champion Luis Crespo (36) for the vacant International Middleweight title.
Tough-as-nails Southpaw Crespo, 10-6-2 (4), is a former EU and IBF regional title-challenger, and has only come up short against very good opponents, such as Ivan Sanchez (16-2-1), Dominik Britsch (26-1-1), and Marcos Nader (17-0-2).
The man from Madrid also holds a victory over then reigning WBO European champion, and future EU champion, Roberto Santos (17-5-1) in a non-title fight, and he has clearly operated, and been successful, at a much higher level than Beaupuis.
24-year-old Bryan Boussis, also from Epernay, will be looking to come of age when he faces Ruben Movsesian from Georgia for the vacant International Welterweight title. With a 9-6-1 (0) record, he gets a big opportunity to show that he is better than his mediocre statistics suggest.
Movsesian (26), from his country’s capital Tbilisi, is 24-17-1 (19) and clearly the harder puncher and more experienced of the two. But, besides a failed crack at the Georgian Lightweight crown in 2012, this will also be his first chance to win a significant championship.
The two well-matched WBF title fights, promoted by Jerome Vilmain and Le Boxing Club D´Epernay, will be preceded by a full undercard involving further local talent, and a near sell-out crowd is expected to cheer the home-favourites on in what could be their defining fights.
