For the 34-year-old ‘Dutch Sonny Liston’ Hersisia, 30-2 (24 KO’s) it is a September 5 meeting with former WBO ‘world’ champion Ray Mercer, 35-7-1 (26 KO’s) – easily the best name that the former WBF and current Dutch & Benelux champion has crossed swords with. Since the fight is in Sweden, where professional boxing is only allowed under more stringent rules, the two punchers will clash over six two-minute rounds only.

Hersisia vs Mercer headlines Pugnus Boxing’s show in Karlstad and five weeks later, Hersisia is due to return home for the first time since 2005 and box the main event on the Ben Bril Memorial promotion on Oct. 13 in Amsterdam, Holland. “We have realistic hopes, if Richel wins both times, to land a big fight before the year is out,” claims manager Schroeder. For the Mercer fight, Hersisia will work full-time with Graciano Rocchigiani, because brother Ralf (himself also a former ‘world’ title holder) can not leave Berlin due to an earlier commitment to train Thomas Ulrich.

As for Willi Fischer, the ex-WBO title challenger, from Frankfurt, the 35-year-old is still waiting for Arena Box Promotion to announce the date for the biggest outing of his so-far successful comeback – which took his overall record to 35-6-1 (22 KO’s) – against compatriot Steffen Kretschmann, 11-0 (10 KO’s). Since Hamburg-based Arena Box Promotion left the German Federation BDB, Kretschmann’s International German heavyweight championship became automatically vacant, but manager Schroeder says “It could still go ahead for some kind of title, but if not, we don’t care much. Arena has already seen some very hot prospects topple recently, and we are confident, Willi can firmly re-establish himself among Europe’s best by upsetting Kretschmann.”