Featured UBO Champion: Sefer Seferi                                                

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July 26, 2020 / BY UBO PRESS OFFICER

Living in and fighting out of Burgdorf in Switzerland, the Albanian national was born in Gostivar, Macedonia in March of 1979. He turned pro at the relatively high age of twenty-eight in 2007, on the undercard of his older brother Nuri, who had 23 bouts under his belt at the time.

In his first 30 months in the paid ranks, Seferi racked up ten straight victories, nine of them by stoppage, fighting mainly in Switzerland, but also in Macedonia, Kosovo and Austria.

His first championship fight came in Austria, when he stopped Hungarian Viktor Szalai in two rounds to lift the vacant World Boxing Federation (WBF) Intercontinental Cruiserweight title in June of 2010.

Seferi would not defend the WBF title, but won nine non-title fights before reclaiming it in April of 2016 with another second round stoppage of another Hungarian in former UBO European and World Champion Laszlo Hubert.

Not a particularly big Cruiserweight, Seferi made a very bold move when he ventured up to Heavyweight to fight world-ranked Manuel Char for the WBA International title in Germany later that year. Seferi did well, but suffered his first defeat via close but unanimous decision.

Back at Cruiserweight he scored two victories, including a defense of the WBF Intercontinental belt against Brazil´s Marcelo Ferreira dos Santos, before landing a big pay-day against comebacking lineal world Heavyweight Champion Tyson Fury on June 9, 2018 in Manchester, England.

Fury was, as expected, much too big for Seferi, who retired on his stool after four rounds. But back at Cruiserweight he had plenty more to do, and proved his worth by scoring a draw against former WBA World Champion Firat Arslan in Germany.

That result earned him a September 2019 crack at IBO World Champion Kevin Lerena in South Africa, but it was not Seferi´s night as he was stopped in the third round. But Seferi still has high hopes on winning a world title.

Two months after the Lerena-setback, Seferi beat late substitute Laszlo Ivanyi for the vacant UBO Inter-Continental title, and all was set for him to contest the UBO World title this past May. Covid-19 prevented that from happening, but it is hoped a rescheduling is possible before the end of this year.