25-year-old Mohamed Merah from France won the vacant UBO International Light Heavyweight title in March when he won a unanimous decision over tough and rugged German Steve Kroekel.

After another victory in a non-title fight, he defended his crown in November with a convincing performance (W10) against Georgian Paata Aduashvili.

After a less than stellar start to his career, going 0-1-2 in his first three outings, Merah is now 9-1-3 and looking to make his second title-defense this spring.

Travelling to his opponents backyard in Kenya, and clearly the less experienced of the two boxers, Tanzanian Ramadhani Shauri put on the best performance of his career when he stopped David Kiilu in six rounds to win the UBO International Lightweight title on June 29.

Only 20 years old at the time, Shauri (now 17-4-1, 10 KOs) was outboxed in the first few rounds by Kiilu, but later came back to floor the home-man in round five, and eventually get the victory by knockout in the sixth.

This was a pulsating fight with both boxers having their moments, and the 2013 UBO Fight Of The Year!
 

UBO World Cruiserweight Champion Dmitry Kudriashov (12-0, 12 KOs) made his international breakthrough in 2013. Six fights, Six wins, Six knockouts!

Nicknamed “The Sledgehammer”, Kudriashov won the UBO title in May with a fifth round stoppage of Prince George Akrong from Ghana, and followed those wins up with quick victories over Shawn Cox (KO2) and Zack Mwekassa (KO1).

He is the UBO´s New Champion Of The Year For 2013.

Algerian Dahou Djamel Nasreddine was only 20 years old, and only had five professional fights under his belt, when he travelled to Tanzania to win (KO2) the UBO All-Africa Super Lightweight title against Hamis Ajali in April.

He has since turned 21, and added another five knockout victories to his ledger which now reads 11-0 (10), and he is without a doubt the UBO 2013 Prospect Of The Year!

Vasily Kostenko and his SKV Boxing put on two great UBO championship boxing events in 2013.

In May he promoted Dmitry Kudryashov vs. Prince George Akrong for the UBO World Cruiserweight title, and in November he put on Movsur Yusupov vs. Vladimir Idranyi for the Youth Light Heavyweight crown.

Both events, and fights, were excellent and Kostenko / SKV Boxing is the UBO 2013 Promoter Of The Year!


 

Father of UBO All-Africa Super Lightweight Champion Djamel Nasreddine Dahou (11-0, 10 KOs), Mohamed Mokhtar Dahou has done a magnificent job in 2013 with his young son (21).

Djamel, who won the Algerian National title in 2012, started the year at 5-0 (4) and ended it at 11-0 (10), having won the UBO title in April (against a Tanzanian in Tanzania) and a regional title at Welterweight (against a Ghanaian in Ghana) in September.

The massive support of Matamba Postolo in the Democratic Republic of Congo was again clear as day, when the undefeated Cruiserweight captured the UBO All-Africa title against Georges Akuvi from Niger on March 9 at the Cine Betamax in his hometown of Lubumbashi.

Promoter Mukadi Manda put on a wonderful event, packed to the rafters and with a nice undercard, and Postolo (17-0, 11 KOs) stopped Akuvi in five rounds and send his loyal fans into a state of ecstasy. Everything put together makes this the 2014 UBO Event Of The Year!

This year’s Special Tribute Award goes to promoter Joseph Germain (pictured) and International Cruiserweight Champion Martial Bella Oleme.

Germain is recognized for providing a title opportunity to career-journeyman Bella Oleme, and Oleme (10-28-3, 1 KO) is recognized for defeating Georgian champion George Tevdorashvili (W10) to become an unlikely titlist after usually going on the road to face local favorites.