30.03.05 – German based Ukrainian Taras Bidenko suffered the first knockout loss of his career against his massive countryman Vladimir Virchis who stopped Spotlight Boxing’s prospect in the final round of a heated battle between two European heavyweight top contenders. Virchis decked Bidenko in round 2 with one of many powerful right hands that he landed during the contest and he also had the upper hand in the following two rounds.. But in round five Bidenko gained more control of the fight and systematically outscored Virchis with his jab and precious combinations while moving from side to side.
But the powerful 115,6 kg Virchis remained highly dangerous up until the final bell. Just as the final round ran down it appeared that the almost 15 kg lighter Bidenko would come out as the winner by decision. But Virchis landed his right hand again several times in round 12 until he dropped the exhausted Bidenko again. As Bidenko barely rised on unsteady leggs referee Erich Stümpfl called a halt to the bout after one minute and 54 seconds of the final round.
At the time of the stoppage Bidenko was leading on all three official scorecards.
Bidenko and Virchis headlined an event of Spotlight Boxing at Wandsbeker Sporthalle in Hamburg, Germany. The main event was televised live and all over Europe on Eurosport TV. Five fights from the undercard were broadcast live and free of charge on the internet on www.boxing.de.
It was the second defeat in the career of the 24-year-old Bidenko as he dropped to 14-2 with 9 knockouts. His pervious loss came against Russian giant Nicolay Valuev against who he lost a controversial twelve round decision in 2002 in his 4th professional contest.
Vladimir Virchis remained undefeated at 17-0 with 15 knockouts.
All Results:
WBO Int. Heavyweight Championship
Vladimir Virchis TKO12 Taras Bidenko
Super Middleweights
Dimitri Sartison W10 Mukadi Manda
Jr. Welterweight
Ali Ahraoui TKO2 Rintaro Yamaguchi
Heavyweight
Valery Chechenev TKO3 Michele Hielscher
Welterweight
Marco Cattikas TKO2 Abdeliah Benabbou
Super Featherweight
Ina Menzer W6 Viktoria Oleynik
Jr. Bantamweight
Susianna Kentikian TKO1 Lucie Hornakova
Next Internet Live Broadcast on www.boxing.de
April 19, 2005
18:00 German time
12:00 US ET
09:00 US PT