By Jim Dower: EBU heavyweight champion Alexander Dimitrenko (30-1, 20 KO’s) has an important fight on Saturday against Polish heavyweight Alberto Sosnowski (46-3-1, 28 KO’s) at the Sport and Congress Center, Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Besides this being a defense of his European Boxing Union title, it could lead to a fight against one of the Klitschko brothers for Dimitrenko should he win. He’s got a lot riding on this fight and he can’t afford another slip up like the one he suffered in his 12 round majority decision loss to Eddie Chambers last year in July.

That was a WBO title eliminator bout, and instead of Dimitrenko being the one that faced WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko earlier in the year in March, it was Chambers who got the nice payday.

Dimtrenko looks good at times but he seems to make mental errors in his fights by trying to slug it out too much and not using his size to his advantage. At 6’7″ with a nice left hook and right hand in his arsenal, Dimitrenko fails to use his reach like he should in his fights. If you look at most of his wins during his career, he often lets his opponents get too close and he’s forced to chop them down with awkward looking punches on the inside. Dimitrenko should be using his jab and left hook the same way that Wladimir does to dominate his opponents. Dimitrenko may not punch as hard as Wladimir, but he hits hard enough to keep them on the outside if he would just focus on using the weapons that he does have in his possession.

Sosnowski, 6’2″, got a big opportunity earlier this year when he took on WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko earlier this year in May, but Sosnowski didn’t have the size or the power to really compete with Vitali in any real way. Vitali toyed with Sosnowski for nine rounds, seeming to carry him that long to give the German fans their monies worth, and then in the 10th Vitali opened up with his right hands and quickly took Sosnowski out. Dimitrenko might be wise not to let Sosnowski stick around as long as Vitali did, because Sosnowski has good power and if he lands one of his wild right hands, he could take Dimitrenko out. However, Sosnowski is there to be hit and if Dimitrenko jumps on him early, he could overwhelm him with punches and score a quick stoppage.