“Universum Champions Night“ on June 6, in Oberhausen, highly rated heavyweight Denis Boytsov will be facing stablemate Taras Bidenko. Universum fighter Denis Boytsov (24-0, 19 KOs), currently WBA # 5, will defend his WBA Intercontinental belt and puts his undefeated record on the line against WBA # 2 ranked stablemate Taras Bidenko (26-2, 12 KOs) of spotlight boxing. It will be a battle between the hard hitting 23 year old Boytsov and the experienced 29 year old Bidenko, previously the holder of the WBA Interconti belt.

Denis Boytsov: “We know each other very well, but we must disconnect our professional and private lives for this fight. Taras is the number two in the WBA rankings, I’m number five. We both want to continue to the top. This is a very important fight for us both”.

The Russian Denis Boytsov has been training with trainer Fritz Sdunek for many years and hes been improving since. Especially his punching power is excellent what he showed in his last fight in February when he knocked down Israel Carlos “King Kong” Garcia in round 2 and improved his record to 19 KOs in 24 fights.

Fritz Sdunek: “This will be a high tempo duel that will not be easy for either fighter. Of course, it’s a bout which one does reluctantly, but this is simply our job”.

Taras Bidenko has positioned himself in the top rankings over the past years and is currently WBA # 2 very close to a world title fight. The Ukrainian born fighter, who is trained by Valentin Silaghi, has won his last fights against Michael Sprott and Richel Hersisia on points.

Taras Bidenko: “Naturally this fight is a difficult situation for me. Normally we’re friends and I wasn’t so happy to accept this fight. But since I have now, I intend to continue to move up in the rankings”.

His trainer Valentin Silaghi stated: “We train in various gyms so we don’t show our cards. It is a funny feeling as I’ve known Fritz for 20 years. Now we are in the opposite corners, but as he said, we must do our jobs and we will”.