By Aaron Klein: Ukrainian heavyweight Taras Bidenko (26-2, 12 KOs) defeated former BBBofC British and Commonwealth (British Empire) heavyweight champion Michael Sprott (30-12, 15 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Burg-Waechter Castello, Dusseldorf, in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 97-93, 97-94 and 97-93, all for Bidenko. I personally scored the fight 96-94 for Sprott. I couldn’t see how Bidenko could have won the fight seeing that he had been totally dominated in rounds one though three, five through seven.
None of those rounds were even slightly close with Sprott easily winning with fast combinations and hard jabs. Bidenko, 28, a 6’4″ 218 lb heavyweight without much power, took over the fight starting in the 8th round as Sprott tired out somewhat. However, most of the final three rounds were very close and could have gone either way. Sprott, 33, came into the fight looking remarkably out of shape in comparison to his form a year ago, in February 2007, when he stopped Audley Harrison in the 3rd round in a major shocker to win the BBBofC British heavyweight title.
On Saturday night, the 6’0″ Sprott came into the fight at a chunky 242 lb, looking fat around his upper torso and midsection. In the opening rounds, the extra lard didn’t seem to effect much as was able to use his faster hands and better power to sting the slower Bidenko often with shots. However, I figured that unless Sprott was able to take Bindenko out with something in the early rounds, he might end up fading in the 2nd half of the fight.
Bidenko looked poor in rounds one, two and three, showing little power or offense to speak off, while getting pasted regularly by overweight Sprott. Indeed, in the 1st round, Sprott hit Bindenko at will with punch after punch without any return fire from the timid looking Bidenko. At one point, Sprott, who had been carrying his lead left hand low for the entire round, began holding it straight up in the air, apparently inviting Bidenko to take a free shot. Seeing that even this couldn’t get Bidenko to attempt a shot, Sprott then upped his ploy by leaning forward and placing both of his hands behind his back. Still, even this couldn’t get the overly cautious Bindenko to throw a shot.
It was sad and rather disappointing, because Bidenko looked overmatched and afraid, even against this badly out of shape version of Sprott. In the 2nd round, Sprott began landing hard right hands to the head of Bidenko, hitting him flush many times in the round. For his part, Bidenko finally began to let his hands go a little, throwing a few jabs in the round. It wasn’t much, but at least he finally was trying a little. In the last minute of the round, Sprott landed well with left hands and powerful combinations to the head of Bidenko.
By the end of the round, the right side of Bidenko’s face, near his eye, had turned an angry red from all the right hands he’d absorbed from Sprott in the round. The third round was an especially one-sided round, as Sprott was teeing off with big shots for most of the round and using Bidenko as tall punching bag. The fight wasn’t even close to being competitive at this juncture. I had hoped that Bidenko would at least try and fight back, considering that he had a reputation for having good offensive skills, but for whatever reason he looked like a deer caught in the headlights, afraid to move or do anything. When he did attempt to fight back, his hand speed and power were limiting factors for him, though, causing him to get hit with counter shots from the quicker, more powerful Sprott.
Sprott appeared to take the 4th round off, throwing only a handful of punches in the entire round. This let Bidenko win the round almost my default, because he still only threw a handful of punches of his own, while getting pasted with hard lefts and rights on occasion from Sprott. Bidenko was cut badly over his left eye in the round, which would be a lingering problem for the remainder of the fight.
In rounds five, six and seven, Sprott once again easily schooled the slender Bidenko, making eat a lot of leather and keeping under a constant rain of shots. Bidenko was trying harder in these rounds, but he clearly didn’t have the skills to compete with Sprott while the British fighter was at the top of his game. I was thinking then that it had probably been a huge mistake of putting Bidenko in with a fighter of Sprott’s class, even an out of shape Sprott, because Bidenko just didn’t seem to have the talent to compete. Previous to this fight, Bidenko had mostly fought 3rd tier fighters, and a couple low B-grade ones like Richel Hersisia and Cisse Salif, whom he handled fairly well. But, it looked as if Bidenko was in over his head in this fight and probably shouldn’t have been matched so tough. Bidenko rarely landed anything in rounds five through seven, and spent most of the time looking like a big punching bag for Sprott.
In the 8th round, Sprott suddenly started to look gassed out, sweating badly and no longer firing off shots like he’d done in the previous rounds. This allowed Bidenko finally to get into the fight, although he mostly threw jabs in the round and little else; it was enough, however, to give him the round.
In the 9th and 10th rounds, it was all Bidenko as he used his jab and left hook to control the action over the exhausted-looking Sprott. In the 10th round, Sprott started off well in the first half of the round, firing off jabs and combinations and looking almost as good as he did early in the fight. However, Bidenko came on in the second half when Sprott, now looking spent, could no longer offer up any shots. Bidenko, his left eye a blood mess, finished the remainder of the round tagging him with lefts and right hands and driving the German crowd crazy.
Like I said, there was no way that Bidenko could have won this fight, not with all the rounds that he had given away. If you wanted to be kind to him, the judges’ could have bent over backwards and possibly scored it as a draw, but no way was this a win for him. As it is, the fight was another controversial decision in Germany. I don’t like Bidenko’s chances of winning too many future fights if he continues to move up the latter in the division. He’s too thin, too slow and too weak to compete with better heavyweights and could very likely take a major beating when that time comes.