By Jason Kim: If European Boxing Union (EBU) heavyweight champion Audley Harrison (27-4, 20 KO’s) wants to get a shot against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko or his brother WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, then Harrison is going to have to go through first 6’7″ Ukrainian Alexander Dimitrenko (29-1, 19 KO’s), who is seen here calling Harrison out for a fight. Dimitrenko, 27, is Harrison’s mandatory challenger for his EBU title and if Harrison wants to get pushed up quickly in the rankings, there’s no better way than by beating Dimitrenko in an impressive fashion. Dimitrenko is currently ranked #6 by the IBF and #8 by the WBO. Harrison could do himself a lot of good by healing up, agreeing to fight Dimitrenko and then beating him as soon as possible.

This is Dimitrenko’s message to Harrison:

“This is my message for you, Audley. You said you want to fight Klitschko. But you will not find a better opponent than me. I am heavy, I am taller than Klitschko. Let us fight. I am the official challenger. And I will fight against you. Be a man! Don’t be a girl. Let us fight. Show me that you are a real man. If you vacate your title, you are a wimp.”

The style of Dimitrenko’s video message is very similar to that of Wladimir Klitschko, who used a video message to call out WBA heavyweight champion David Haye two weeks ago. The You Tube video was sent around to a number of websites and became pretty popular. However, it didn’t get much of a response from Haye, though. He’s stayed in seclusion resting from his recent win over John Ruiz earlier this month.

Dimitrenko hasn’t exactly been busy lately, last fighting a year ago in July in a losing effort to American Eddie Chambers. Dimitrenko didn’t look at all good in that fight, as he ran out of gas in the 2nd half of the fight and ended up getting dropped by Chambers. Dimtrenko lost the fight by a 12 round majority decision, although it looked to be a decisive win for Chambers. Dimitrenko moves well for a heavyweight and has good technical skills for the most part but lacks power and doesn’t have a powerful jab like fellow countryman Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko. Dimitrenko made a huge mistake against Chambers of letting Chambers fight on the inside against him where he was beaten up by the faster American. Dimitrenko should have clinched and slowed Chambers down on the inside, but failed to do so.

Harrison is coming off a 12th round knockout win over Michael Sprott on April 9th. Harrison needed to come from behind to score the knock out with a big left hand in the last round of the fight. Earlier in the bout, Harrison had torn his chest muscle on his right side of his chest, which prevented him from using his right hand from the 2nd round on. Luckily, Harrison, a southpaw, had his powerful left hand to fall back on in the last round and was able to take Sprott out.

Harrison wants to fight Wladimir Klitschko. However, he needs to get a win over a top tier fighter like Dimitrenko to get ranked high enough to get a fight with Wladimir.