By Erik Schmidt: Only 22, undefeated Denis Boytsov (23-0, 20 KOs) is already one of the best heavyweights in the division and possibly good enough already to be ranked in the top five. A former amateur star from Oryol, Russia, Boytsov is well on his way to becoming perhaps one of the heavyweight champions in the not too distant future.
Although he has still yet to face any top fighters in the heavyweight division, he’s shown the skills and power that would seem to suggest that he has the makings of a future star. His one liability, his lack of size, is the only drawback that he has working against him at this point. However, at 6’1″ 220, he has more than enough size to give most heavyweights problems mainly because of his good hand speed, excellent combinations and compact fighting style.
While it may be a bit of a stretch to see him beating one of the super heavyweights in the division like Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, he’d have a good chance at beating the other top heavyweights like Nikolay Valuev, David Haye, Sultan Ibragimov, Ruslan Chagaev, Alexander Povetkin and Alexander Dimitrenko.
In his last fight last Saturday night against Vinny Maddalone, Boytsov used compact combinations to dominate Maddalone, a good B-level fighter, beating him by an eight-round unanimous decision at the Burg-Waechter Castello, in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.
In the first round. Maddalone, 34, a tough brawler, wrestled and clinched Boytsov constantly in the round, trying to tire him out and prevent him from landing his heavy combinations at close range. In the second round, Boytsov dropped Maddalone with a hard left-right combination to the head after landing a short flurry of heavy shots.
Maddalone clinched hard after the knockdown, doing a good job of surviving the remainder of the round without getting dropped again. However, right before the round ended, Boytsov was able to shed Maddalone for long enough to hit him with hard left hand to the midsection and then another left to the head that staggered Maddalone as he walked back to his corner.
Maddalone was cut over the right eye in the round. In rounds three and four, there were a lot of clinches initiated by Maddalone, who was having problems taking the big shots from Boytsov whenever the two fighters were separated. Boytsov pounded Maddalone with blistering shots while he had him up against the ropes in the 3rd, raking him from body to head with heavy blows.
In the 4th, Maddalone clinched constantly, giving Boytsov only brief periods to get his shots off before being grabbed and clinched. Maddalone was beginning to look very tired from the action, his face turning red from the punches he was getting hit with.
In the 5th and 6th rounds, Maddalone’s face was a bloody mess. A second cut had opened up, this one on the side of his right eye giving him matching cuts that bled all across his face and onto his trunks. Maddalone continued to clinch frequently but more and more he was getting caught against the ropes by Boytsov and punished with big shots.
At the end of the 6th round, Boytsov hit him with 18 consecutive shots to the head in the final seconds. In rounds seven and eight, Maddalone began taking a terrible beating, getting hit over and over with hard combinations from Boytsov.
Maddalone was still throwing punches, but he didn’t have the power or speed to handle Boytsov’s big power punches. At the end of the 7th, Boytsov drove Maddalone to the ropes and tagged him with a flurry of shots as the round ended. In the 8th round, Boytsov savagely beat Maddalone as he lay against the ropes, bloody and nearly helpless. The final judges’ scores were 79-72, 80-71 and 79-72.
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