by Tamas Pradarics

After a show in Transylvania in April, Felix Promotion is back in Hungary with a live, 8-bout card in the Dr. Papp Laszlo Sporthall in Szentes this coming Friday. In the main event, unbeaten cruiserweight Imre Szello will see action against Venezuelan Williams Ocando in a ten-round cruiserweight fight.

The 34-year-old Szello (20-0, 12 KO), who currently stands No. 4 with the WBO at 200 pounds, last fought in February when he won a decision over once-light heavyweight prospect Denis Grachev.

Ocando (18-5, 16 KO) broke an eighteen-month inactivity with a TKO victory against a winless opponent this past April in Petare, Venezuela. The 29-year-old Caracas-based boxer has had most of his fights against mediocre opposition during his six and a half years in the pro game. He fought in Europe once, suffered a sixth-round TKO defeat at the hands of Ryad Merhy two years ago in Belgium.

The undefeated Szello is planning to put himself in position to fight for the WBO world title in the not-so-distant future. His journey to there, however, is kind of complicated based on the difficulty of securing a meaningful opponent for the Hungarian pugilist.

“The cruiserweight division is one of the busiest categories today. Beyond the WBSS fighters, we have guys like [Maxim] Vlasov, [Krzysztof] Glowacki, [Mateusz] Masternak, [Firat] Arslan, [Roman] Golovashchenko, and [Ryad] Merhy. They are all exceptional boxers. I would like to see Imre against either one of them, but no one is really open to taking risks at the moment,” told Szello’s promoter, Felix Racz to BoxingScene.com.

“For example, Merhy said no for a fight against Szello after his defeat in a [WBA interim cruiserweight] title fight [that happened this past March]. We were close to getting a deal to bring in Golovashchenko but they stepped off at the last minute. We also offered the fight to Arslan, but they have yet to get back to us with an answer. At the end of the day, we are moving on. We don’t have time to waste.”

Former WBO European super featherweight champion Zoltan Kovacs is making his return to the ring following an eleven-month layoff caused by an injury. The former highly-rated 130-pound pugilist will take on Georgian Achiko Odikadze (18-7-1, 7 KO) in a six-round lightweight contest. According to Felix Racz, Kovacs (20-5-1, 6 KO) may need three or four fights to get back to the level he had been at prior to his inactivity.

Middleweight prospect Norbert Harcsa will also come back from an eleven-month absence following his ten-round decision loss to arch-rival Balazs Bacskai last June. Harcsa’s (8-1, 2 KO) opponent will be Polish journeyman Mariusz Biskupski (23-46-2, 8 KO) at a 160-pound match scheduled for six frames.

Hard-hitting cruiserweight prospect Jozsef Darmos will take on Giorgi Tevdorashvili (28-25-4, 17 KO) in a six-round bout at 200 pounds. With a win, Darmos (9-2-2, 8 KO) could revenge his countryman, Tamas Toth’s failure against the Georgian journeyman. With his points victory over Toth, Tevdorashvili caused a sizeable upset last April.

Also on the card former WBO Youth 168-pound titlist Renato Egedi (12-1-2, 6 KO) will see action in eight rounds at middleweight. Freshly debuted super middleweight prospect Barnabas Hegyi (1-0, 1 KO) and up-and-coming 140-pounder Balazs Marton (4-1-1, 4 KO) will participate on four-round matchups serving as card-openers.

Friday’s event is promoted by Felix Promotion and will get televised on M4 Sport in Hungary.

You can reach Tamas Pradarics at pradaricst@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TomiPradarics.