Alexander Viktorovych "Sascha" Dimitrenko ( uk, Олександр Вікторович Димитренко; born 5 July 1982) is a Ukrainian-born German former

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

who competed from 2001 to 2019, and held the European

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the W ...

title from 2010 to 2011.

Amateur career

Dimitrenko began boxing at the age of fourteen. Representing Russia, he won the 2000 World Junior Championships in the

super-heavyweight Super heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and competitive bodybuilding. Boxing In amateur boxing, the super heavyweight division is a weight class division for fighters weighing in excess of 91 kilograms (200 pounds). Introduced for t ...

division at the age of eighteen, with German promoter Klaus-Peter Kohl offering him a deal immediately afterwards. Dimitrenko signed with Kohl's Universum promotion company and moved to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

to begin his professional career.22-летний украинский тяжеловес александр дмитренко перед поединком с американцем россом пьюрити проведет бой с его соотечественником
/ref>

Professional career

Early career

Dimitrenko made his professional debut on 8 December 2001, stopping Marcus Johnson in four rounds on the undercard of the fight between

Vitali Klitschko Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko (; uk, Віта́лій Володи́мирович Кличко́ ; born 19 July 1971) is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who serves as mayor of Kyiv Ross Puritty Ross Puritty (born December 18, 1966) is an American former professional boxer. A high-level journeyman and occasional heavyweight contender, Puritty is best remembered for his shocking upset of Wladimir Klitschko in 1998 that won him the WBC in ...

. Dimitrenko's professional debut averaged over 5 million viewers on Sat.1. Standing at an imposing , he was widely regarded as one of the top contenders for a future world title opportunity. He compiled a record of 14 wins in 14 bouts, ending 10 of them inside the distance, 8 of them - inside the first two rounds. He was then scheduled to face his first notable opponent,

Ross Puritty Ross Puritty (born December 18, 1966) is an American former professional boxer. A high-level journeyman and occasional heavyweight contender, Puritty is best remembered for his shocking upset of Wladimir Klitschko in 1998 that won him the WBC in ...

. The bout generated attention in both Germany and Ukraine, given Puritty's win over

Wladimir Klitschko Wladimir Klitschko; an equivalent English spelling is Vladimir Klichko . His full name in uk, label=Ukrainian is, Володимир Володимирович Кличко, Volodymyr Volodymyrovych Klychko, . ( uk, Володимир Вол� ...

six years prior, with Dimitrenko entertaining the idea of beating someone who had defeated one of the Klitschkos. The bout was scheduled to happen on 31 July 2004, but Purrity pulled out after suffering an elbow injury during training camp while sparring with

Juan Carlos Gomez ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...

. Puritty pulled out just three days before the scheduled date. Instead, Dimitrenko faced former

British and Commonwealth British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

heavyweight champion

Julius Francis Julius Francis (born 8 December 1964) is a British former professional boxer who participated in many noteworthy boxing matches in the mid 90s and 2000s. In 2007, he also participated in a mixed martial arts bout, having been a former European ...

, who at the time was used as a stepping stone by some of the rising prospects, such as

Audley Harrison Audley Hugh Harrison, (born 26 October 1971) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2013. As an amateur he represented Great Britain at the 2000 Olympics, winning a gold medal in the super-heavyweight division an ...

and Volodymyr Vyrchys, and as a stay-busy fight by heavyweight contenders. Dimitrenko won the bout by a lopsided unanimous decision (UD), with all three judges scoring the bout identically 80–72, giving Dimitrenko every round. The fight between Dimitrenko and Puritty was re-scheduled to take place on 6 November 2004, with Dimitrenko agreeing for a tune-up bout against Andy Sample. Dimitrenko defeated Sample by second-round TKO. On 6 November 2004, he finally faced Puritty in an anticipated showdown that was televised by ZDF. The fight was part of the three-fight main event which also saw Sergiy Dzindziruk defending his European welterweight title against Hussein Bayram, and

Mario Veit Mario Veit (born 22 December 1973) is a German former professional boxer. He is a former European super middleweight champion and multiple time world title challenger. Professional career Veit went undefeated in his first 30 fights, until losin ...

defending

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing ...

world super-middleweight title against Charles Brewer. Dimitrenko outboxed Puritty for the majority of the fight, staying on the outside and keeping his opponent at the end of his jab. Ultimately, Dimitrenko won the fight by

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighte ...

(UD), with scores 80–72 (twice) and 79–73.

Rising through the rankings

In his next outing, on 5 March 2005, he faced hard-hitting American prospect, Chris Koval, on the undercard of Felix Sturm vs. Bert Schenk. This was Dimitrenko's first fight scheduled for 10 rounds. Coming into the fight, 22-year old Koval had 20–1 record with 16 KOs, with 11 of them in the first round. Dimitrenko was knocked down in the second round but dominated his opponent throughout the rest of the fight. The bout went full ten rounds, with Dimitrenko being declared the winner by a lopsided unanimous decision with scores 98–91 (twice) and 98–92. This was bettered on 2 July 2005, when Dimitrenko picked up two vacant regional championships — IBF and

Inter-Continental heavyweight titles — after a second-round

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving strikin ...

Andreas Sidon Andreas Sidon (born 4 February 1963) is a German professional boxer. A professional since 1999, he has faced former world champions and contenders Nikolay Valuev, Odlanier Solis, Danny Williams, and Andrezj Wawrzyk. Debut Sidon turned profes ...

. Dimitrenko then agreed to face

Vaughn Bean Vaughn Bean (born September 3, 1974) is an American former professional boxer. Nicknamed "Shake & Bake", Bean challenged twice for world heavyweight titles in 1997 and 1998. Professional career Bean began his career with 27 victories over extre ...

on September 28, 2005 as part of the card dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of former world heavyweight champion

Max Schmeling Maximilian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling (, ; 28 September 1905 – 2 February 2005) was a German boxer who was heavyweight champion of the world between 1930 and 1932. His two fights with Joe Louis in 1936 and 1938 were worldwide cultural ev ...

, with the main event of the night being the

world heavyweight title fight between

Luan Krasniqi Luan Krasniqi (born 10 May 1971) is a German actor and former professional boxer. He held the European heavyweight title and also challenged for the WBO world heavyweight title. Background Krasniqi is the youngest of eight children to Kosovar ...

and

Lamon Brewster Lamon Tajuan Brewster (born June 5, 1973) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2010. He held the WBO heavyweight title from 2004 to 2006, and is best known for scoring an upset knockout victory over Wladimir Klitsch ...

. The fight card had seven boxers from the former

Soviet Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that exist ...

scheduled to fight - Dimitrenko,

Ruslan Chagaev Ruslan Shamilevich Chagaev ( tt-Cyrl, Руслан Шамил улы Чагаев; uz, Ruslan Shamilovich Chagayev; russian: Руслан Шамилович Чагаев); born 19 October 1978) is an Uzbekistani former professional boxer who c ...

Denis Boytsov Denis Nikolayevich Boytsov (russian: Денис Николаевич Бойцов; born 14 February 1986) is a Russian former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2015. Amateur career Boytsov has had a decorated amateur career, including ...

Taras Bidenko Taras Bidenko (born February 8, 1980 in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union) is a German-based professional boxer who fights in the heavyweight division. Professional career Bidenko boxed as an amateur before turning professional in June 2000, wi ...

, Valeriy Chechenev, Bagrat Ohanyan and

Alexei Mazikin Oleksiy Mazikin (born 16 February 1975) is a Ukrainian boxer best known to win the silver medal at the 2001 World Championships in the Men's Super Heavyweight division. Amateur Mazikin was a successful amateur but kept losing to southpaws. At ...

, with the latter being forced to pull out due to injury. 31-year old Bean, known for having competitive bouts with world champions

Evander Holyfield Evander Holyfield (born October 19, 1962) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2011. He reigned as the Undisputed championship (boxing), undisputed champion at cruiserweight (boxing), cruiserweight in the late 1 ...

and

Michael Moorer Michael Lee Moorer (born November 12, 1967) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2008. He won a world championship on four occasions in two weight classes, having held the WBO light heavyweight title from 1988 t ...

and having only been stopped by

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

boxer Gonzalo Omar Basile on 28 October 2006. In the build up to the fight, Basile received media attention for his tattoos. During pre-fight press conference, Basile claimed to be "the devil between heavyweights", while Dimitrenko expressed his disgust with "so many tasteless tattoos" on Basile's body, and that he was going to punish Basile for them. In the lead-up to the fight, Dimitrenko's coach

Fritz Sdunek Fritz Sdunek (; 18 April 1947 – 22 December 2014) was a German professional boxing trainer and previously an amateur boxer. Regarded as one of the most successful and famous boxing trainers, he trained, among others, such world champions as Wla ...

said that his fighter was getting better with each bout, and that very soon he would become "the new

Klitschko Vitali Klitschko (born 19 July 1971) and Wladimir Klitschko (born 25 March 1976), known as the Klitschko Brothers, are Ukrainian former professional boxers. During their peak years between 2004 and 2015, they were considered the dominant world he ...

" and fight for the world heavyweight title. The fight took place at

Porsche-Arena Porsche-Arena is a multi-purpose arena, located in Stuttgart, Germany. The seating capacity of the arena varies, from 5,100 to 8,000 people and it was opened in 2006, after 14 months of construction. The arena is part of a sport complex located i ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

and was televised on ZDF. It was Basile's first professional bout outside of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

. The fight lasted 54 seconds, with Basile's corner throwing in the towel after Basile could not respond to a barrage of shots from Dimitrenko. In his last fight of 2006, Dimitrenko faced an experienced American journeyman Billy Zumbrun on 18 November 2006, only three weeks after beating Basile. Originally, the main event of the card was supposed to be the fight between Felix Sturm and Gavin Topp, but the fight was postponed due to Sturm's injury. Dimitrenko, regarded as a popular commodity in Germany at the time, was considered to be an adequate replacement for Sturm. According to Dimitrenko, the fight turned out to be "tougher than expected". He won by a shut-out unanimous decision, knocking Zumbrun down in the first round and dominating him throughout the rest of the fight. Zumbrun was deducted a point in the tenth round for headbutting. The judges scored the bout 120–105, 119–107 and 120–106. By the end of 2006, Dimitrenko was ranked as the world's ninth best heavyweight by

BoxRec BoxRec or boxrec.com is a website dedicated to holding updated records of professional and amateur boxers, both male and female. It also maintains a MediaWiki-based encyclopaedia of boxing. The objective of the site is to document every profes ...

. He was also ranked No.4 heavyweight contender by

. Dimitrenko then had two stay-busy fights in the first half of 2007, defeating American heavyweights Danny Batchelder and

Malcolm Tann Malcolm Earl Tann (born August 20, 1978) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2002 to 2017. Amateur career Tann started boxing while serving in the United States Air Force. In 2002 Tann became National Golden Gloves Super H ...

by mid-fight TKOs. By July 2007, Dimitrenko was ranked No.2 contender by WBO, No.6 contender by WBC and No. 10 contender by WBA. He then signed to face

Timo Hoffmann Timo Hoffmann (born 25 September 1974) is a German professional boxer and multiple-time European heavyweight title challenger. He is perhaps best known as being the only fighter for nearly a decade (from 2000 to 2009) to have gone the full dist ...

on 17 November 2007. Hoffmann, who had previously faced fighters like

Vitali Klitschko Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko (; uk, Віта́лій Володи́мирович Кличко́ ; born 19 July 1971) is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who serves as mayor of Kyiv Luan Krasniqi Luan Krasniqi (born 10 May 1971) is a German actor and former professional boxer. He held the European heavyweight title and also challenged for the WBO world heavyweight title. Background Krasniqi is the youngest of eight children to Kosovar ...

and

Henry Akinwande Henry Adetokunboh Akinwande (born 12 October 1965) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2008. He held the WBO heavyweight title from 1996 to 1997, as well as the Commonwealth heavyweight title in 1993, and the Euro ...

and was known for his durability, had never been stopped inside the distance coming into this bout and was expected to be a tough challenge for Dimitrenko and an opportunity to elevate Dimitrenko's popularity in Germany. Dimitrenko weighed in at and was outweighed by Hoffmann by . This was also the first professional fight in which Dimitrenko was fighting someone taller than himself. The bout took place at

Bördelandhalle The GETEC Arena (until 2011: ''"Bördelandhalle"'') is an indoor arena, indoor sporting arena located in Magdeburg, Germany. The maximum capacity of the arena is 8,071 people for Team handball, handball games and 8,820 for boxing matches. It is t ...

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...

and was the main event of the card that was aired on ZDF. Both fighters started fighting aggressively and throwing heavy shots from the opening bell, with Dimitrenko appearing to be doing the better work, finding success working Hoffmann's body. At the beginning of the fourth round, Dimitrenko unleashed a barrage of punches that sent Hoffmann to the canvas. Hoffmann got up but was knocked down again after a series of body shots. By the end of the round, Dimitrenko appeared to be tired. Hoffmann regained composure in round 5, pressing Dimitrenko against the ropes and knocking him down with a left hook. In the second half of the fight, both fighters were trading shots, with Dimitrenko having the upper hand in most of the exchanges. By the eighth round, Hoffmann's face was covered in blood, while Dimitrenko had swells above both eyes. Dimitrenko unleashed another barrage of punches in the twelfth round, knocking Hoffmann down again. Hoffmann got up, but was soon dropped again. Dimitrenko then threw a series of unanswered shots, prompting the referee to stop the bout after Hoffmann was dropped again, with 36 seconds left to the end of the fight. Dimitrenko became the first boxer to defeat Timo Hoffmann inside the distance. During post-fight drug testing, Hoffmann tested positive for anabolic steroids. By the end of 2007, Dimitrenko was ranked by BoxRec as the tenth best heavyweight in the world. After defeating

Derric Rossy Derric Rossy (born July 2, 1980) is an American former professional boxer and a former defensive end at Boston College. He enrolled in the Lynch School of Education with a major in human development. Rossy knocked out Gary Bell in the second ro ...

by fifth-round TKO in a stay-busy fight, Dimitrenko then signed to face then-highly regarded German boxer

on 18 November in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

, as part of the show billed by Universum as "Golden November". Many observers saw this fight as a big step up in competition for Dimitrenko and Krasniqi's last chance to regain his stock after losses to

and Tony Thompson. During pre-fight press conference, Krasniqi said that if he wouldn't beat Dimitrenko, he was going to retire. The fight lasted only three rounds. In the third round, Dimitrenko dropped Krasniqi with a liver shot. Krasniqi was unable to get up at the count of ten, prompting the referee to stop the fight and declaring Dimitrenko the winner by third-round KO. This was Dimitrenko's fifth stoppage in a row, achieved against opponents with combined record 133–15–3. At the conclusion of 2008, Dimitrenko was ranked No.10 heavyweight in the world by ''The Ring''. He was also ranked No.2 contender by WBO, No.3 by WBC and No.7 contender by WBA and IBF.

WBO world heavyweight title eliminator

After two reigns as WBO Inter-Continental champion, Dimitrenko was scheduled to face

Eddie Chambers Edward Chambers (born March 29, 1982) is an American former professional boxer. He challenged once for a unified world heavyweight title in 2010. He was ranked as the fourth best heavyweight in the world by '' The Ring'' at the conclusion of 200 ...

in a WBO world heavyweight title eliminator. At the time of the fight, Chambers was ranked No.6 heavyweight contender by ''The Ring'', while Dimitrenko was ranked No.8 by the same publication. Dimitrenko was also ranked within top 5 by all major sanctioning bodies. Dimitrenko weighed in at 253 1/4 lbs, outweighing Chambers by 45 1/2 lbs.Event: Dimitrenko vs Chambers
/ref> The fight took place at

Color Line Arena The Barclays Arena (originally known as the Color Line Arena and formerly known as barclaycard arena and O2 World Hamburg) is a multipurpose arena in Hamburg, Germany. It opened in 2002 and can hold up to 16,000 people (13,800 or 12,947 for sp ...

Hamburg, Germany (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

and was televised by ZDF. Dimitrenko was outboxed for most of the fight, visibly unprepared for Chambers' unusually aggressive approach. Dimitrenko received a standing count in the seventh round after a left hook to the body, and was knocked down in the tenth after another left hook, this time to the chin. Dimitrenko lost the fight by majority decision. The judges scored the bout 117–109 and 116–111 in favor of Chambers, and 113–113 even.

Later fights; inactivity and return

Looking to regain his stock, Dimitrenko agreed to face

in a rematch on 28 November 2009 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Some observes criticized the fight, pointing out that Krasniqi hadn't fought in the ring since their first encounter. Dimitrenko dismissed these criticisms, claiming that Krasniqi, despite the long stretch of inactivity, was still a dangerous, highly experienced fighter. Three weeks before the scheduled date, Krasniqi was forced to pull out due to sprained

Achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcaneus ...

on his right leg. The fight was postponed, then cancelled altogether. Shortly after

(26–4, 20 KOs) defeated

Michael Sprott Michael Sprott (born 16 January 1975) is a British former professional boxer. He held the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles in 2004 and the EBU European Union heavyweight title twice between 2005 and 2007. He was the winner of the 14 ...

(32–14, 17 KOs) on 9 April for the vacant European heavyweight title, EBU ordered him to fight the mandatory challenger Dimitrenko in his first defense. During the Sprott fight, Harrison allegedly suffered an injury that was going to keep him out of action for four months. Dimitrenko expressed doubt over the alleged injury: " arrisonwas wildly celebrating the victory, jumping and waving his arms. Then he had a surgery. The surgery took place on 24 April. So he was walking in pain for more than two weeks? And only after that he went under the knife? But I have not seen a single official document confirming the injury of an Englishman." Harrison openly stated his interest in fighting

David Haye David Deron Haye (born 13 October 1980) is a British former professional boxer who competed between 2002 and 2018. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, and was the first British boxer to reach the final of the World Ama ...

while also eyeing a bout against one of the Klitschkos; he admitted that the victory over Dimitrenko would pave him a way to the Klitschko bout as it would allow him to become the top 10 contender of each of the major sanctioning bodies. On 9 June, Harrison was stripped of the title. Eventually Dimitrenko agreed to face Dennis Bakhtov (33–5, 23 KOs) for the vacant European heavyweight title on 30 July 2010 in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Bakhtov's manager German Titov won the right to promote the bout with a purse bid of €260,000. A few days before the scheduled date, the bout was cancelled due to Bakhtov allegedly suffering an injury. However, there were rumours that the event was cancelled due to Titov's financial problems. Instead, Yaroslav Zavorotnyi (14–4, 12 KOs) came in as a late replacement. The bout took place in Hamburg, Germany. Dimitrenko dominated the entire fight. In the fifth, Dimitrenko pressed Zavorotnyi to the corner and threw a barrage of unanswered punches, prompting Zavorotnyi's corner to throw in the towel. Two successful defences were made in 2011 against British journeyman

and former world title challenger

Albert Sosnowski Albert Dariusz Sosnowski (born 7 March 1979) is a Polish former professional boxer who challenged for the WBC heavyweight title in 2010. Professional career Sosnowski made his professional debut in July 1998, defeating Czech fighter Jan Drobena ...

. In February 2012, Dimitrenko announced that he had terminated his contract with Universum Box-Promotion. Soon after, Dimitrenko hired

Scott Welch Scott Roy Welch (born 21 April 1968) is a retired British professional boxer. As an amateur, Welch became one of the ABA champions at heavyweight. He travelled the world as a professional boxer, winning the Southern Area belt, the British, Com ...

. After two defenses of the European title, Dimitrenko agreed to face undefeated

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

n prospect

Kubrat Pulev Kubrat Venkov Pulev ( bg, Кубрат Венков Пулев; born 4 May 1981) is a Bulgarian professional boxer. He has challenged twice for the unified heavyweight title in 2014 and 2020. At regional level, he has held multiple heavyweight ...

on 5 May 2012 on the undercard of Marco Huck vs.

Ola Afolabi Olawale O. "Ola" Afolabi (born 15 March 1980) is a British professional boxer. He is a two-time former WBO interim cruiserweight champion, as well as a two-time former IBO cruiserweight champion. Nicknamed "Kryptonite", Afolabi was known in ...

. 6 ft 4in tall Pulev, despite making his professional debut at a relatively late age, was highly regarded due to his amateur background and unorthodox fighting style, and was expected to be one of the most dangerous heavyweights to challenge

for the heavyweight title. Many observers were giving both fighters an even chance to win, and expected the winner of this bout to fight for the title in the near future. Pulev and his trainer Otto Ramin expected a tough fight although Dimitrenko had not fought since September 2011. Dimitrenko weighed in at , 12 lbs heavier than Pulev. The fight took place at Messehalle in

Erfurt, Germany Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in th ...

, and was aired live on

Das Erste Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the nine regional public broadcasting corporations that are member ...

.Kubrat Pulev Vs Alexander Dimitrenko
/ref> Dimitrenko started the fight well, using his height and reach to his advantage. He also moved well on his feet to avoid punishment. In round 4, Pulev began to find his range and began countering and landing some power punch combinations of his own, rocking Dimitrenko at times. Dimitrenko looked faded as he entered round 11. Pulev landed a jab which slowly dropped Dimitrenko to a knee. At this point, he had taken much punishment and remained down. Referee Guido Cavalleri counted him out, giving Pulev an 11th round KO win. A stoppage loss to Pulev appeared to have derailed Dimitrenko's career. Without a prominent promoter and trained by a local gym coach, Dimitrenko scored two uninspiring decisions against journeymen before entering a long stretch of inactivity. Despite rumours about his retirement appearing in the media, Dimitrenko insisted that he was going to return to the ring "as soon as possible". Dimitrenko would spend more than two years out of the sport, from March 2013 to May 2015. He made his return on 30 May 2015, defeating Patryk Kowoll by first-round TKO. He was slated to face former heavyweight champion

Shannon Briggs Shannon Briggs (born December 4, 1971) is an American former professional boxer. He is a two-time heavyweight champion, having held the lineal heavyweight championship from 1997 to 1998, and the WBO title from 2006 to 2007. Briggs is known for h ...

in May 2016, but this fell through. On 1 October 2016, Dimitrenko was knocked out in three rounds by Joseph Parker. On 18 March 2017, in an upset, Dimitrenko knocked out undefeated heavyweight contender

Adrian Granat Carl Wilhelm Adrian Granat (born 26 April 1991), best known as Adrian Granat, is a Swedish former professional boxer who fought at heavyweight. Boxing career Having started boxing at age 13, he won gold in the Swedish Championship at 17 in 2009 ...

in the first round to win the IBF International heavyweight title. On 18 August 2018, Dimitrenko, ranked No. 10 heavyweight contender by the IBF at the time, faced

Bryant Jennings Bryant Jennings (born September 25, 1984) is an American former professional boxer. He challenged once for the unified world heavyweight titles in 2015, and the WBA interim heavyweight title in the same year. Jennings holds notable wins over for ...

, ranked No. 8 by the WBO and No. 11 by the WBA. Jennings ended the fight via a ninth-round TKO. In his next fight, Dimitrenko faced WBA's No. 11 and IBF's No. 15 heavyweight contender Andy Ruiz Jr. Dimitrenko seemed disinterested during the fight, as Andy Ruiz Jr was dominating for most of the rounds. By the end of the fifth, Ruiz Jr started to hurt Dimitrenko, which resulted in Dimitrenko's corner stopping the fight before the beginning of the sixth round. On 13 July 2019, Dimitrenko faced former Olympic gold medal winner Tony Yoka. Yoka made easy work out of the veteran, knocking him out within three rounds in his home country of France.

Personal life

Dimitrenko became a German citizen in 2010.

Professional boxing record

Television viewership

Germany

References

External links

*
Alexander Dimitrenko - Profile, News Archive & Current Rankings
a
Box.Live
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dimitrenko, Alexander Heavyweight boxers Ukrainian male boxers 1982 births Living people Ukrainian emigrants to Germany European Boxing Union champions German male boxers Naturalized citizens of Germany Super-heavyweight boxers People from Yevpatoria