European Boxing News: Dzinziruk, Miranda, Tajbert, Monteyne, Paszterko

By Per Ake Persson

Sergey Dzinziruk, WBO junior middle champ but inactive since November 2008, continues in Ukrainian media to claim his contract with Universum is over with but what does Universum say? Well, today Universum have for the first time commented on the case and confirms a contractual dispute but states that a court in Hamburg ruled in their favour already in November.

Universum claims that planned fights in the US against Paul Williams and James Kirkland fell through due to a lack of interest from US TV and due to Dzinziruk´s financial demands. Universum does open the door for Dzinziruk to buy himself out of the contract.

Dzinziruk, an exellent amateur, turned pro with what was known as Panix Europe and was mainly fighting out of Poland but joined Universum in 2003 after sitting out almost all of 2002 due to promotional problems. He won the European title in 2004 and the WBO crown in 2005.

His reign as champ have never been happy though and already in 2007 there were rumors of contractual problems although he (or his opponent) officially was injured and he fought only once that year. In 2008 he struggled against Lukas Konecny and Joel Julio, winning but was far from his true capacity. He´s spent 2009 looking for that big breakthrough fight in America.

Edison Miranda is due to illness out as challenger for WBO super middle ruler Robert Stieglitz but the defence will go ahead against an opponent to be announced. On the bill are three heavyweight fights with Manuel Charr taking on Owen Beck, Dennis Boytsov facing Kevin Montiy and in an internal eliminator Markus Tomala squares off against Christian Hammer. Ina Menzer takes on Ramona Kuehne in the co-featured bout and defends the WBC, WIBF and WBO titles at featherweight.

German media writes that on Saturday night, WBC Interim junior lightweight champ Vitali Tajbert got involved in a fight outside of a night club in Stuttgart and a 23-year old man suffered life threatening injuries. Not all details are clear yet, both Tajbert, the injured man and most witnesses were under the influence of alcohol but it appears that Tajbert got involved in an argument and one thing led to another and Vitali took out the 23-year old with a single punch.

Stuttgarter Zeitung writes that Tajbert, a light punching, technically very skillful boxer, was known as a model athlete although he was caught for drunk driving a few years back. Tajbert is now charged with assault.

Vitali won the German amateur title seven times, the European title in 2004, bronze in the Olympic games also in 2004 but had problems in the pros due to his lack of power and strength. He lost to Sergey Gulyakevich in an attempt to win the European title in 2008 but beat Humberto Gutierrez to win the WBC interim title November 21 this year. As a boxer he is nothing short of exellent but again, you need a certain degree of power and strength to make it in the pros.

It now appears he faces a lenghty layoff even if all details aren´t clear yet in what appears to be a tragic case for all involved. He´s promoted by Spotlight Boxing in Hamburg, a daughter company to Universum.

Former Belgian light heavy champ Gilbert Monteyne has passed away at the age of 64. Monteyne compiled a 19-11-2 record in the early 70´s.

LP Promotion begin the new year with a quantity-wise big show in Nove Zamky, Slovakia, topped by a national title fight at cruiser between Boris Uhlik against Slavomir Selicky. LP himself, heavyweight boxer and for years the strong man in Slovakian boxing, Laszlo Paszterko, is also on the bill and fights Janos Somogyi in what is a featured bout.