By James Slater: As fight fans may or may not be aware, last night’s scheduled 12-rounder between heavyweights Alexander Dimitrenko and Albert Sosnowski was cancelled at the last minute (literally), due to how European title-holder Dimitrenko shockingly collapsed in his dressing room in Germany.
With just minutes to go before the knock on the door signifying his fight was up next, the once-beaten 28-year-old fainted and was rushed to hospital. Thankfully, as has been reported on Fightnews.com web site, Dimitrenko has been released from the hospital and he is feeling much better.
“I’m doing better again,” Dimitrenko said. “I’m still waiting on some results and a clinic in Hamburg will do more tests tomorrow. I hope that we’ll know what happened. This is something I’ve never experienced before. I apologise to the fans, but I hope I’m healthy again quickly and can take this fight.”
Promoters Universum have announced that the fight will be rescheduled, and that Dimitrenko will remain as European champion until that time.
The events of last night must rank as a first when it comes to a big name fighter keeling over minutes before a big fight. Thankfully, Dimitrenko came over faint BEFORE he got into the ring. Fans can be a tough bunch at times, and no doubt some were annoyed at how they never got to see the fight they had paid for; but most level-headed people understand that what happened yesterday was truly a fluke, out of the blue thing.
The support fights that did proceed as planned in Germany (results as per below article) entertained the fans, and fellow heavyweights Juan Carlos Gomez and the unbeaten Manuel Charr earned wins, while Matt Vegan lost in his bid to become WBO European lightweight champion, as he was stopped in the 3rd-round by Eduard Trojanovskij.
The Dimitrenko-Sosnowski clash remains an intriguing, 50-50-looking fight, and hopefully it will be reset for some time early next year.
Dimitrenko, 30-1(20) had rebounded from the heavy points loss to “Fast” Eddie Chambers, having won the vacant Euro belt back in July, and he was looking forward to making a first defence. 31-year-old Sosnowski, 46-3-1(28), is currently one win removed from his May stoppage loss to WBC heavyweight king Vitali Klitschko, and he will be anxious indeed to find out when last night’s aborted fight will now take place.