If you frequent some of the biggest boxing forums one name seems to keep appearing when people are talking about heavyweight prospects and that's the name of 22 year old Polish fighter Artur Szpilka. Stood at 6'4" and fighting out of a crouched southpaw stance Szpilka has swiftly shown the early signs of a talented fighter despite several out of the ring mishaps which have perhaps been the most notable feature of his career so far.
Born in Wieliczka back in 1989 it's fair to say the Szpilka is still a young heavyweight and whilst he has shown both foolish youthfulness and inexperience he has also been swiftly improving and turning his life around. As a youth Szpilka got involved in illegal fights outside of football grounds and got caught in at least 2 fights between fans of Wisła Kraków and Cracovia, the second of those fights saw Szpilka locked away for almost 2 years.
Although the young fighter had been boxing professionall before his jail term it was whilst in prison that Szpilka realised what boxing really meant to him. The prison time gave Szpilka not only time to reflect on his actions but also time to dedicate himself to bulking up his body. For Szpilka's final fight before prison he weighed just 200lbs, the cruiserweight limit and on his return to the ring 23 months later he was a much more muscular fighter weighing weighing over 240lbs.
Prior to prison Szpilka had managed to run up a 5 fight record winning 3 of those by stoppage and had shown impressive power and explosiveness which had seen him dropping almost all of his early opponents. Since leaving prison Szpilka has added 2 swift wins. The first of those wins was a lightning quick (33 seconds) blow out of Ramiz Hadziaganovic (who entered 8-0) and that was followed by an opening round KO of David Williams. Of the two victories it was the one over Ramiz Hadziaganovic that really got fans excited as Szpilka landed a shot that send his opponent face first to the canvas for the full count.
With a record of 7-0 (5) Szpilka has so far shown fantastic power, great head movement, swift hands and a fun to watch style, despite this the shaven headed and tattooed fighter still has a number of questions surrounding him. The big questions is can Szpilka stay out of trouble? Can his stamina hold up over the distance? Will his power carry up to the next level? Whats his chin like? If Szpilka can indeed stay out of trouble and if he can show his power, stamina and chin hold up he could be "the new Tyson".
Szpilka is expected to fight again in a few weeks, with names such as Robert Hawkins and Larry Donald being thrown out there though the opponent hasn't been officially named as yet.
Video thanks to zakir371
Thursday 29 September 2011
Wednesday 28 September 2011
Michael Wallisch
Germany has become the base for most European fighters over the past few years but have rarely provided their own top fighters (with a few exceptions aside). In giant heavyweight prospect Michael "Der Germane" Wallisch (7-0, 4) they may have found a fighter to call their own and one who fights in with the growing "super heavyweight" movement.
Born in 1985 in Chemnitz, Sachsen (though now based in Halle, Sachsen-Anhalt) the 6'5" Wallisch is slowly forging his name in the heavyweight division. Trained by renowned former fighter Otkay Urkal we know that Wallisch won't be allowed to do things "the easy way" and he's been pushed well since debuting back in 2010.
Wallisch made his debut against Taras Varva back in March '10 and scored a 3rd round TKO before adding 3 more easy wins to move to 4-0 (3) within just a few months of becoming a professional. In Wallisch's first fight against a "known" opponent he faced veteran Turkish fighter Serdar Uysal and scored a 2nd round TKO. Since then however Wallisch has "exposed" the then 27-0 Yakup Saglam winning a clear 10 round decision over Saglam to claim the German International Heavyweight title.
Wallisch's amateur credentials aren't the best (with around just 30 fights) but with his improving opponents, his natural size and his youth he could be a real one to watch. For now we've not really seen a lot of him and whilst his style is a little bit robotic he's improving continually under the tutelage of Urkal. We should be seeing Wallisch out next later this year against an as yet unnamed opponent on what seems like it could be a very interesting night for us heavyweight fans with Glazkov, Charr and Hammer all fighting on the same night.
Video thanks toeastsidefighter1
Born in 1985 in Chemnitz, Sachsen (though now based in Halle, Sachsen-Anhalt) the 6'5" Wallisch is slowly forging his name in the heavyweight division. Trained by renowned former fighter Otkay Urkal we know that Wallisch won't be allowed to do things "the easy way" and he's been pushed well since debuting back in 2010.
Wallisch made his debut against Taras Varva back in March '10 and scored a 3rd round TKO before adding 3 more easy wins to move to 4-0 (3) within just a few months of becoming a professional. In Wallisch's first fight against a "known" opponent he faced veteran Turkish fighter Serdar Uysal and scored a 2nd round TKO. Since then however Wallisch has "exposed" the then 27-0 Yakup Saglam winning a clear 10 round decision over Saglam to claim the German International Heavyweight title.
Wallisch's amateur credentials aren't the best (with around just 30 fights) but with his improving opponents, his natural size and his youth he could be a real one to watch. For now we've not really seen a lot of him and whilst his style is a little bit robotic he's improving continually under the tutelage of Urkal. We should be seeing Wallisch out next later this year against an as yet unnamed opponent on what seems like it could be a very interesting night for us heavyweight fans with Glazkov, Charr and Hammer all fighting on the same night.
Video thanks toeastsidefighter1
Thursday 22 September 2011
Vyacheslav Glazkov
Heavyweight boxing at the moment is dominated by Ukrainians with Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko holding all the major titles and Alexander Dimitrenko currently holding the European title though it seems like they may well have one of the divisions next stars as well. Vyacheslav Glazkov is one of the fighters who is emerging, quickly as a real one to watch in the division and has the amateur credentials to back up the hype behind him.
Born in Lugansk in late 1986 Glazkov emerged as a top amateur in his late teens having won the World University Boxing Championship in 2004 as a Heavyweight before moving into the Super Heavyweight division the following year. Although he was unlucky in 2005 to run into the excellent Odlanier Solis at the World Amateur Championships he showed enough, as a teenager for some insiders to start to take notice of him.
If 2005 was the year for him to announce himself, 2006 was the year to show the real promise he had by stopping giant Englishman David Price. Despite Price having a considerable size advantage over Glazkov the Ukrainian merely proved that size doesn't count for everything. In the biggest tournament of the year, the European Amateur Champions, Glazkov ran into top Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev who widely out pointed Glazkov, again showing that Glazkov wasn't the finished article.
It wasn't until 2007 that Glazkov managed to medal at a major competition, thanks to a Silver medal at the 2007 World Amateur Championships. Sadly for Glazkov he ran into the exceptional Roberto Cammarelle of Italy in the final and lost a wide decision on point. Despite the loss in the final Glazkov had made his mark and proven he could compete with the best in the world. The following year, at the Beijing Olympics Glazkov started well but suffered an injury on his elbow that saw him pull out of a fight with Chinese fighter Zhang Zhilei (the eventual Silver medal winner).
After the Olympic heartbreak Glazkov turned professional and made his debut in late 2009. Glazkov's debut was against Turkish heavyweight Oezcan Cetinkaya who, at the time, had a record of 15-5-1. Glazkov would box a clear decision win over his experienced opponent and set the tone for his career so far, which has seen him face very credible opponents fight after fight, rather than pad his record as fellow Olympian Deontay Wilder has done.
Since his debut Glazkov has faced several real tests such as Alexey Varakin (who was 28-16-3), Ramon Hayes (15-29-1), Mark Brown (15-3) and most recently the dangerous Denis Bakhtov (33-5) as the Ukrainian prospect has forged to a 9-0 (6) record. Impressively Glazkov hasn't just been fighting a stiff level of opposition but beating them with relative ease and racking up valuable experience with 31 rounds and an 8 round bout already under his belt.
Glazkov is next expected to fight in October on a show in the Dominican Republic against an as yet unknown opponent. Going by his record so far we can only expect to see Glazkov in a bout that will act as a real test and hopefully help make him into a more promising young fighter. To date however he's shown excellent skills, fantastic hand speed and the ability to box whilst keeping up a solid work rate. Although he has question marks over his power it's likely he'll grow his real punching power of the coming years, and what is obvious from watching him is he can land clean accurate shots time and time again. If the 6'3" fighter can keep his weight in the 220's he could well be a contender that the world can be proud of, for now however he's "just" one of the elite heavyweight boxing prospects.
Thanks to LoopingRightHand for the video below.
Born in Lugansk in late 1986 Glazkov emerged as a top amateur in his late teens having won the World University Boxing Championship in 2004 as a Heavyweight before moving into the Super Heavyweight division the following year. Although he was unlucky in 2005 to run into the excellent Odlanier Solis at the World Amateur Championships he showed enough, as a teenager for some insiders to start to take notice of him.
If 2005 was the year for him to announce himself, 2006 was the year to show the real promise he had by stopping giant Englishman David Price. Despite Price having a considerable size advantage over Glazkov the Ukrainian merely proved that size doesn't count for everything. In the biggest tournament of the year, the European Amateur Champions, Glazkov ran into top Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev who widely out pointed Glazkov, again showing that Glazkov wasn't the finished article.
It wasn't until 2007 that Glazkov managed to medal at a major competition, thanks to a Silver medal at the 2007 World Amateur Championships. Sadly for Glazkov he ran into the exceptional Roberto Cammarelle of Italy in the final and lost a wide decision on point. Despite the loss in the final Glazkov had made his mark and proven he could compete with the best in the world. The following year, at the Beijing Olympics Glazkov started well but suffered an injury on his elbow that saw him pull out of a fight with Chinese fighter Zhang Zhilei (the eventual Silver medal winner).
After the Olympic heartbreak Glazkov turned professional and made his debut in late 2009. Glazkov's debut was against Turkish heavyweight Oezcan Cetinkaya who, at the time, had a record of 15-5-1. Glazkov would box a clear decision win over his experienced opponent and set the tone for his career so far, which has seen him face very credible opponents fight after fight, rather than pad his record as fellow Olympian Deontay Wilder has done.
Since his debut Glazkov has faced several real tests such as Alexey Varakin (who was 28-16-3), Ramon Hayes (15-29-1), Mark Brown (15-3) and most recently the dangerous Denis Bakhtov (33-5) as the Ukrainian prospect has forged to a 9-0 (6) record. Impressively Glazkov hasn't just been fighting a stiff level of opposition but beating them with relative ease and racking up valuable experience with 31 rounds and an 8 round bout already under his belt.
Glazkov is next expected to fight in October on a show in the Dominican Republic against an as yet unknown opponent. Going by his record so far we can only expect to see Glazkov in a bout that will act as a real test and hopefully help make him into a more promising young fighter. To date however he's shown excellent skills, fantastic hand speed and the ability to box whilst keeping up a solid work rate. Although he has question marks over his power it's likely he'll grow his real punching power of the coming years, and what is obvious from watching him is he can land clean accurate shots time and time again. If the 6'3" fighter can keep his weight in the 220's he could well be a contender that the world can be proud of, for now however he's "just" one of the elite heavyweight boxing prospects.
Thanks to LoopingRightHand for the video below.
Wednesday 21 September 2011
Matteo Modugno
When we look at heavyweight boxing one country seems to be forgotten about. Despite having had 2 "world champions" in the heavyweight division Italy seems to have been no where near that standard in recent years, in fact their top recent heavyweight, Paolo Vidoz has become a European journeyman of sorts. One man however does give Italy a serious chance at making a mark on the heavyweight division once again. Matteo "Grissino" Modugno, (9-0, 4) appears to have all the tools a young upcoming heavyweight could ever want and seems determined as well as talented.
Born in Piacenza in 1987 the 24 year old, who is now fighting out of Langhirano, is a man mammoth who stands at 6'6" and although early footage of him does show him carrying some extra weight he has started to tone up a bit more recently. What is surprising about the big man however is that he not only incredibly well for such a huge guy be he has a really good boxing IQ for someone so inexperienced. He has shown an ability to go to both the head and body, mix up his shots and land a crisp clean jab.
Since his debut in May 2010 after having had an excellent time in the amateurs we've seen Modugno not only develop well but also step up his competition in the right sort of manner. He first started with the inexperienced Alex Szekely (TKO1) and has since fought experienced fighters like of Ferenc Zsalek (pts 6), Tomas Mrazek (pts 6) and most recently Lazlo Toth (KO3).
Although far from being the finished article he has begun to develop into a very promising heavyweight prospect who has shown power and skill to get to where he is. Although their was hope, before he turned pro, that he would compete in the 2012 London games, it seems the allure of the professional ring (and the fact Roberto Cammarelle will likely compete as Italy's super heavyweight) has seen him turn over earlier than expected. Hopefully he'll put this extra time to good use in the ring and be on the verges of a European title shot by the time of the Olympics.
Video thanks to sportdacombattimento
Born in Piacenza in 1987 the 24 year old, who is now fighting out of Langhirano, is a man mammoth who stands at 6'6" and although early footage of him does show him carrying some extra weight he has started to tone up a bit more recently. What is surprising about the big man however is that he not only incredibly well for such a huge guy be he has a really good boxing IQ for someone so inexperienced. He has shown an ability to go to both the head and body, mix up his shots and land a crisp clean jab.
Since his debut in May 2010 after having had an excellent time in the amateurs we've seen Modugno not only develop well but also step up his competition in the right sort of manner. He first started with the inexperienced Alex Szekely (TKO1) and has since fought experienced fighters like of Ferenc Zsalek (pts 6), Tomas Mrazek (pts 6) and most recently Lazlo Toth (KO3).
Although far from being the finished article he has begun to develop into a very promising heavyweight prospect who has shown power and skill to get to where he is. Although their was hope, before he turned pro, that he would compete in the 2012 London games, it seems the allure of the professional ring (and the fact Roberto Cammarelle will likely compete as Italy's super heavyweight) has seen him turn over earlier than expected. Hopefully he'll put this extra time to good use in the ring and be on the verges of a European title shot by the time of the Olympics.
Video thanks to sportdacombattimento
Petero Qica
Heavyweight Boxing Prospects can be found literally all over the world as Petero "Lauan Torpedo" Qica Jr of Fiji proves. Although little is really know about Fijian Heavyweight Champion there is enough to really be excited about him.
Qica Jr has become a well known name in his homeland having been trained by national icon Sunia Cama Senior, the former Light Heavyweight champion of Fiji who became a major trainer in his homeland until his death in 2010. Though the talk of one of Cama's former students was to take Qica over to Canada where Qica's talent could be shown to the world.
Despite only having very limited amateur experience (6-0, 5) Qica has impressed as a professional by running up a 4-0 (3) record against some stiff competition sing his debut back in August 2008. In his debut Qica would stop the experienced Fatu Tuimanono in the 3rd round, this victory was followed up months later by an opening round stoppage over Alifereti Qiolele. Though it was Qica's 3rd professional fight that made headlines back in his homeland as he defeated the hard hitting veteran Mosese Kavika. Kavika had notched up in excess of 30 fights in a career that went back to the 1980's and showed that experience against Qica though the youngster would snatch a close decision win to claim the heavyweight title of Fiji by majority decision. The two men would meet again in July 2011 this time with Qica stopping his veteran opponent.
Petero Qica Jr was last reported to be training under his father who took over the job of training the young 22 year old southpaw after the death of Cama who trained Qica Jr at the Arara-ta/YMCA Boxing Club in Suva. For the stinging southpaw we can only guess what the future holds, though it's safe to assume that not many 22 year old heavyweights have made so many newspaper headlines back home as Qica, who with 27 rounds under his belt already (including a full 12 round fight and an 11 rounder) is picking up plenty of experience at a vital learning stage in his career.
Qica Jr has become a well known name in his homeland having been trained by national icon Sunia Cama Senior, the former Light Heavyweight champion of Fiji who became a major trainer in his homeland until his death in 2010. Though the talk of one of Cama's former students was to take Qica over to Canada where Qica's talent could be shown to the world.
Despite only having very limited amateur experience (6-0, 5) Qica has impressed as a professional by running up a 4-0 (3) record against some stiff competition sing his debut back in August 2008. In his debut Qica would stop the experienced Fatu Tuimanono in the 3rd round, this victory was followed up months later by an opening round stoppage over Alifereti Qiolele. Though it was Qica's 3rd professional fight that made headlines back in his homeland as he defeated the hard hitting veteran Mosese Kavika. Kavika had notched up in excess of 30 fights in a career that went back to the 1980's and showed that experience against Qica though the youngster would snatch a close decision win to claim the heavyweight title of Fiji by majority decision. The two men would meet again in July 2011 this time with Qica stopping his veteran opponent.
Petero Qica Jr was last reported to be training under his father who took over the job of training the young 22 year old southpaw after the death of Cama who trained Qica Jr at the Arara-ta/YMCA Boxing Club in Suva. For the stinging southpaw we can only guess what the future holds, though it's safe to assume that not many 22 year old heavyweights have made so many newspaper headlines back home as Qica, who with 27 rounds under his belt already (including a full 12 round fight and an 11 rounder) is picking up plenty of experience at a vital learning stage in his career.
Bogdan Dinu
If Denis Boytsov is the prospect nearest to being the complete article and the most experienced heavyweight boxing prospect out there then Bogdan Dinu (7-0, 4) is the fighter who is still in his proverbial boxing nappies. The 25 year old from Bucharest, Romania has had a very stop start career which has seen him amass only 7 fights since his debut way back in April 2008, though he had remained a name that the hardcore fans have known about for a while.
Dinu, like so many others made his name as an amateur where he competed for his native Romania with varying degrees of success. Dinu's real success as an amateur came in the early years of competing as he won the U17 World Cadet Championships in 2003 and a bronze medal at the U17 European Champions the same year. He later added the silver medal from the European Junior Championships in 2005 before his amateur career seemed to stall somewhat. His amateur days were ended in disgrace however after being thrown out of the World Amateur Championships in 2007 as he, along team mates Ronald Gavril and Gabriel Julian Stan were thrown out of the competition and banned for life for shop lifting.
In 2008 Dinu made his professional debut and defeated the durable Stephane Tessier by 4 round decision and by the end of the year he had added the names of Shawn McLean (UD4) and James Pratt (KO1) to his record. All three of those fights were on notable cards held in Romania and headlined by pretty well known Romanian fighters (Such as Jo Jo Dan and Adrian Diaconu). Though much to the disappointment of the boxing world Dinu's career somewhat stalled with only a single fight in both 2009 and 2010.
Sadly for those who were excited about Dinu's early days they've had little in 2011 to get extra excited by, he's again only fought once, though the actual performance was incredibly impressive and has shown that he is developing well even if it has been away from the eyes of fans. In that fight Dinu swiftly stopped Awadh Tamim inside a round on the undercard of Lucien Bute's IBF Super Middleweight title defence against Jean Paul Mendy. It was that fight that really caught the eyes of fans, as the 6'5" Dinu showed fantastic movement, blinding handspeed and more than impressive shot selection which saw some dub him a future Klitschko conqueror.
Whilst I doubt Dinu and either Klitschko will ever share a ring together it's hard not to be impressed from the videos available of Dinu. For a 7 fight (7-0, 4) novice he's showing all the right things inside the ring even if his activity has been lacking. Dinu may well be the best kept secret in heavyweight boxing, but he's also one of the more notable heavyweight boxing prospects in regards to raw talent.
Dinu will look to improve to 8-0 this coming weekend when he faces Canadian Eric Martel Bahoeli (7-2, 4) on the undercard of Lucian Bute v Denis Grachev.
Video thanks to LionAssociation
Dinu, like so many others made his name as an amateur where he competed for his native Romania with varying degrees of success. Dinu's real success as an amateur came in the early years of competing as he won the U17 World Cadet Championships in 2003 and a bronze medal at the U17 European Champions the same year. He later added the silver medal from the European Junior Championships in 2005 before his amateur career seemed to stall somewhat. His amateur days were ended in disgrace however after being thrown out of the World Amateur Championships in 2007 as he, along team mates Ronald Gavril and Gabriel Julian Stan were thrown out of the competition and banned for life for shop lifting.
In 2008 Dinu made his professional debut and defeated the durable Stephane Tessier by 4 round decision and by the end of the year he had added the names of Shawn McLean (UD4) and James Pratt (KO1) to his record. All three of those fights were on notable cards held in Romania and headlined by pretty well known Romanian fighters (Such as Jo Jo Dan and Adrian Diaconu). Though much to the disappointment of the boxing world Dinu's career somewhat stalled with only a single fight in both 2009 and 2010.
Sadly for those who were excited about Dinu's early days they've had little in 2011 to get extra excited by, he's again only fought once, though the actual performance was incredibly impressive and has shown that he is developing well even if it has been away from the eyes of fans. In that fight Dinu swiftly stopped Awadh Tamim inside a round on the undercard of Lucien Bute's IBF Super Middleweight title defence against Jean Paul Mendy. It was that fight that really caught the eyes of fans, as the 6'5" Dinu showed fantastic movement, blinding handspeed and more than impressive shot selection which saw some dub him a future Klitschko conqueror.
Whilst I doubt Dinu and either Klitschko will ever share a ring together it's hard not to be impressed from the videos available of Dinu. For a 7 fight (7-0, 4) novice he's showing all the right things inside the ring even if his activity has been lacking. Dinu may well be the best kept secret in heavyweight boxing, but he's also one of the more notable heavyweight boxing prospects in regards to raw talent.
Dinu will look to improve to 8-0 this coming weekend when he faces Canadian Eric Martel Bahoeli (7-2, 4) on the undercard of Lucian Bute v Denis Grachev.
Video thanks to LionAssociation
Tuesday 20 September 2011
Denis Boytsov
Denis Boytsov is one of the better known names in heavyweight boxing having been featured in Ring magazine's rankings for the division though he is still only a young prospect at just 25 years of age. The young Russian has shown a lot of promise so far in a 28 fight career (all wins, 23 by knockout) that started when he was just 18 years old. Though as well as being talented, fun to watch and exciting he has also had a number of problems in a career that has, on more than one occasion, looked like it could be over before it really began.
Boytsov's story begins in Orel, with is near the Western border of Russia some 200 miles West of Moscow, it was here that Boystov was born in February 1986. It was whilst competing for Russia as an amateur that Boytsov made a number of the sports insiders take notice as he ran up impressive amateur wins. In an amateur career totally 130 fights he won well in excess of 100 and notched up 2 Cadet World Championships (2001 and 2002) and a Junior World Championship (2004).
Despite being a good amateur his style wasn't really suited to the amateur side of the sport and instead of staying in the unpaid ranks he decided to get paid for fighting and in late 2004 made his professional debut by stopping Imrich Borka inside a round. By the end of the year Boytsov had run up 4 wins (all by KO) needing a total of just 5 rounds to mow through his competition.
Over the following couple of years Boytsov was allowed to grow into a natural heavyweight and bulk his frame up from around 200lbs to around 215-220lbs as he continued to pick up wins over progressively stiffer competition through Germany and Austria. Boytsov would swiftly work his way through his competition and actually stopped his first 14 opponents inside the distance, with experienced Brazilian Edson Cesar Antonio becoming the first man to last the distance with Boytsov.
Boytsov's first title victory came against Ondrej Pala of the Czech Republic in a bout for the WBC Youth World heavyweight title, Boytsov scoring a 5th round TKO due to cuts though it wasn't until late 2008 and 2009 that he really started to make his mark on the sport. In 2008 Boytsov would score victories over well known Americans Robert Hawkins (UD8) and Vinny Maddalone (UD8) in what were seen as good tests over well known Heavyweights.
The fledgling career of Boystov however seemed to speed up in 2009 as he won both the WBA Inter-Continental heavyweight title and the WBO European heavyweight title and scored wins over the likes of Taras Bydenko (TKO6) and Jason Gavern (KO7).
Just as it seemed that Denis was on the fast track to success he had a nightmare year suffering serious hand injuries that kept him out of the ring for almost then entire of 2010 and most of 2011. The injuries had required major surgery and it looked as if Boytsov, one of the most exciting young heavyweights might even have called time on his career as almost 2 years were wasted away from the ring. This coming Saturday however marks the return of the young heavyweight prospect as he fights 34 year old Matthew Greer of the USA on the undercard of Alexander Dimitrenko's European heavyweight title defence against Michael Sprott.
At 28-0 (23) Boytsov has an incredible record for such a young heavyweight, wins over Bydenko, Maddalone, Hawkins, Pala and Gavern are all very credible victories. Though he does have his problems. As well as the hand injuries he's also a very small heavyweight at just 6'1" which does give him a somewhat limited chance against the emerging heavyweight giants that are becoming the norm. Although he is powerful and fast it's hard to tell what the hand surgeries may have taken away from his explosive power until he faces Greer and maybe more worrying is the potential for those hand problems to come back in the future. For now however Denis Boytsov is real heavyweight boxing prospect to make yourself aware of.
Thanks to Middletown for the video above.
Boytsov's story begins in Orel, with is near the Western border of Russia some 200 miles West of Moscow, it was here that Boystov was born in February 1986. It was whilst competing for Russia as an amateur that Boytsov made a number of the sports insiders take notice as he ran up impressive amateur wins. In an amateur career totally 130 fights he won well in excess of 100 and notched up 2 Cadet World Championships (2001 and 2002) and a Junior World Championship (2004).
Despite being a good amateur his style wasn't really suited to the amateur side of the sport and instead of staying in the unpaid ranks he decided to get paid for fighting and in late 2004 made his professional debut by stopping Imrich Borka inside a round. By the end of the year Boytsov had run up 4 wins (all by KO) needing a total of just 5 rounds to mow through his competition.
Over the following couple of years Boytsov was allowed to grow into a natural heavyweight and bulk his frame up from around 200lbs to around 215-220lbs as he continued to pick up wins over progressively stiffer competition through Germany and Austria. Boytsov would swiftly work his way through his competition and actually stopped his first 14 opponents inside the distance, with experienced Brazilian Edson Cesar Antonio becoming the first man to last the distance with Boytsov.
Boytsov's first title victory came against Ondrej Pala of the Czech Republic in a bout for the WBC Youth World heavyweight title, Boytsov scoring a 5th round TKO due to cuts though it wasn't until late 2008 and 2009 that he really started to make his mark on the sport. In 2008 Boytsov would score victories over well known Americans Robert Hawkins (UD8) and Vinny Maddalone (UD8) in what were seen as good tests over well known Heavyweights.
The fledgling career of Boystov however seemed to speed up in 2009 as he won both the WBA Inter-Continental heavyweight title and the WBO European heavyweight title and scored wins over the likes of Taras Bydenko (TKO6) and Jason Gavern (KO7).
Just as it seemed that Denis was on the fast track to success he had a nightmare year suffering serious hand injuries that kept him out of the ring for almost then entire of 2010 and most of 2011. The injuries had required major surgery and it looked as if Boytsov, one of the most exciting young heavyweights might even have called time on his career as almost 2 years were wasted away from the ring. This coming Saturday however marks the return of the young heavyweight prospect as he fights 34 year old Matthew Greer of the USA on the undercard of Alexander Dimitrenko's European heavyweight title defence against Michael Sprott.
At 28-0 (23) Boytsov has an incredible record for such a young heavyweight, wins over Bydenko, Maddalone, Hawkins, Pala and Gavern are all very credible victories. Though he does have his problems. As well as the hand injuries he's also a very small heavyweight at just 6'1" which does give him a somewhat limited chance against the emerging heavyweight giants that are becoming the norm. Although he is powerful and fast it's hard to tell what the hand surgeries may have taken away from his explosive power until he faces Greer and maybe more worrying is the potential for those hand problems to come back in the future. For now however Denis Boytsov is real heavyweight boxing prospect to make yourself aware of.
Thanks to Middletown for the video above.
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