Fighters, what's wrong with him? Former promoter of Boytsov: Denis had three drunken fights! Who was the athlete running away from?

The career of a professional boxer is not going so smoothly and cloudlessly. Serious injuries in the ring and unpleasant incidents outside of it may await him. Denis Boytsov, whose biography, personal life and achievements will be outlined below, is a famous heavyweight boxer with many victories to his credit. However, he is now in the hospital and is having difficulty recovering from severe injuries.

Youth and amateur career

Denis Boytsov was born in Orel in 1986. Usually people start boxing in their teens, but the boy’s father put him in the care of coach Nikolai Aspidov from the age of five. Denis Boytsov’s youth career in amateur boxing developed quite successfully. In 2000, at the World Junior Championships, competing in the up to 71 kg category, he beat a local boxer in the final and became the best on the planet in his age category.

Growing up, Denis Boytsov, whose biography developed according to the established rules, gained power and weight. Two years later, at the Junior World Championships in Hungary, he repeated his achievement and again became first. The last performance in the amateur ring dates back to 2004. At the youth world championship, the boxer already competed in the heavy weight category and again turned out to be the best. After this victory, Denis Boytsov, a fighter with very good prospects, makes the difficult decision to turn professional.

Beginning of a professional career

Like many boxers in the post-Soviet space, the native of Orel chose Germany to develop his professional career. Universum is a promotion company with which Denis Boytsov signed a contract. This organization has worked with many famous athletes, in particular with the Ukrainian boxing stars the Klitschko brothers. Denis’s coach was the famous specialist Fritz Zdunek, with whom he worked until 2009. Then he was replaced in this post by the famous professional boxer of the nineties, Artur Grigoryan, who represented Uzbekistan and also collaborated with Ruslan Chagaev.

Denis Boytsov spent his first fights in the professional arena against little-known boxers whose track record consisted mainly of defeats. All these fights, as a rule, ended in the first rounds with heavy knockouts of not very skilled fighters. Janos Somogyi was the first serious opponent of Denis Boytsov. At least the number of victories in his record exceeded the number of defeats, unlike the previous opponents of the Oryol boxer. Nevertheless, the Hungarian fighter did not avoid a heavy knockout.

First titles and defeats

In 2006, Denis Boytsov already began to fight against relatively worthy opponents. Edson Cesar Antonio, an experienced Brazilian heavyweight, became Denis's first opponent who was able to hold out against him for the entire fight and leave the ring without being knocked out. That same year, Boytsov knocked out the promising Czech Ondrej Palu and took the youth championship title. In 2009, another title fight took place, in which the Oryol fighter fought for the title of intercontinental champion. The fight was not very stubborn; Israel Carlos Garcia was knocked out in the second round.

For the next three years, Denis Boytsov continued to perform consistently and knock out his opponents. By 2012, he had already gained enough rating to earn the right to fight for the title of contender for the championship belt. Denis' opponent was identified as the famous British heavyweight Tyson Fury. However, shortly before the fight, Boytsov refused to participate in it, citing a lack of time to prepare for the event. The fight was postponed, but then he was injured, underwent surgery and postponed his return to the ring until 2013.

In 2013, a conflict occurred between the boxer and the company Universum, which had gone bankrupt by that time. The matter went to trial, where Denis Boytsov won a lawsuit against director Waldemar Klüch and became a free agent. In 2013, the first defeat in the career of the Oryol heavyweight occurred. The athlete lost in the title fight to Australian Alex Leapai, having been knocked down twice.

Tragedy in the Berlin subway

In May 2015, an event occurred that called into question not only the boxing career, but also the life of Denis Boytsov. The famous heavyweight was found on the Berlin subway tracks with multiple head injuries. Due to cerebral edema, he was put into an artificial coma, from where Denis was taken out in June 2015. The athlete's position was stable, but difficult. He could neither move, nor speak, nor eat food on his own. The boxer's wife Olga was expecting a child at that time. The fighter’s daughter was born when he was already in the hospital ward.

The reasons for what happened remain a mystery to this day. According to the official version, followed by the German police, Denis Boytsov was injured in an accident while drunk. However, the athlete’s relatives and friends suggest that the boxer could have become a victim of a conflict with Universum director Waldemar Klüch. Today Denis Boytsov continues his treatment, and many sympathetic people from all over the world are helping his family and friends.

He was found with severe head injuries between Berlin metro stations. By decision of the doctors, the athlete was put into an artificial coma. According to the preliminary version, Boytsov, who has recently been living and training in Germany, was attacked, and he tried to escape in one of the tunnels.

He was returning home after watching a broadcast of a boxing match. Judging by the CCTV footage, Boytsov walks at a normal fast pace and descends into the Berlin subway at around 11 am. Five and a half hours later, he is discovered unconscious by a train driver in a tunnel between Bismarckstrasse and Wilmersdorferstrasse stations.

Now Boytsov is in the Berlin Charite clinic. He has a severe traumatic brain injury. Hands are damaged. Doctors put him in an induced coma.

This story shocked the German boxing world. What happened? Random conflict with someone? Unlikely, says coach Dieter Donath. He knows Boytsov well. His student is a sparring partner of the Russian heavyweight.

“Boytsov has always been a very calm athlete, the most balanced of everyone I know. He was almost at the top and lately I had the feeling that he would finally rise to it,” says Dieter Donath, head coach of the boxing club Boxtempel.

Denis Boytsov is well known in the boxing world. Out of 37 fights in the professional ring, he won 36. 27 of them by knockout. He planned to go against the current world champion Wladimir Klitschko.

Police believe it could have just been an accident. However, there is no explanation as to how the boxer ended up in the tunnel. When Boytsov was admitted to the hospital, alcohol was found in his blood and, according to his wife, some sedatives that could weaken even such a strong man.

“Two years ago, Denis left promoter Waldemar Klyukha, and we were threatened then. They wrote to Denis via SMS that he would end up in a wheelchair. It ended with Denis’ assistant being attacked in the park and pierced through his head. After that, the police intervened, Klyukha He was imprisoned for three years, but three months ago he was released for good behavior. We don’t know anything for sure, the police are asking us not to voice all our versions, but these could be the consequences of that story,” says Olga Litvinova, Denis Boytsov’s wife.

The assistant was beaten with rebar, but miraculously survived. Here is an example of a message with which the former organizer of Boytsov’s fights, a native of Kazakhstan, Waldemar Klüh, tried to conduct his business: “You ignored our warning. I am happy to inform you that I must cut off your hand and your ear. Not a word to the police, otherwise a bullet in the forehead ".

Waldemar Klüch has already stated that he has nothing to do with what happened and is even threatening to sue the boxer’s wife for mentioning his name in connection with this story.

According to doctors, Denis Boytsov will remain in an induced coma until next week. Doctors are still avoiding predictions about his return to big boxing. His friends talk about this very carefully.

“In the future, he will decide for himself how to advance - whether to move further up the ladder or maybe work as a coach, or something else. Everything depends on his health, how he behaves. And so good luck to him, patience and health.” Boytsov's former coach Ivan Aspidov

Now his pregnant wife is constantly next to Denis Boytsov. They are due to have a baby in a few weeks.

Olga Boytsova talks about threats against a Russian boxer and an attack on his manager that happened two years ago. Then Gagik Khachatryan was found in the park with a severe head injury, and also received a threatening SMS, the text of which we are publishing today.

“You understand, when Denis was threatened two years ago, we thought that this was nonsense, and that this would not happen to our family. In vain. We reported a death threat to the police, a threat to life and health. But at first the police officers could not provide us with help or protection,” began the message from Olga Boitsova that we received today.

To make it clear what we are talking about - on the third of May, Russian heavyweight Denis Boytsov, living in Germany, was found on the metro tracks in Berlin with a severe head injury. News about this appeared in the media on the 11th. Doctors put Boytsov into an artificial coma in order to wait for the swelling of the brain to subside. We contacted the wife of the Russian boxer, and Olga Boytsova said that two years ago Denis received threatening SMS messages from former promoter Waldemar Klyuch. After which Klyukh ended up behind bars on another case, but was released three months ago.

Valdemar Klyuchrezko reacted to the accusations against him, threatening to sue for libel, and also mentioning that Denis had regular problems with alcohol.

But from today’s letter from Denis’s wife, completely different conclusions can be drawn:

“After the attack on our assistant, the criminal was detained. And we slept peacefully. But now I’m really afraid and afraid for the health and life of my family, so I’m insuring myself and publicly declaring my fear. And I declare my assumptions about Denis’s former promoter also publicly! Looking forward to the help of society! I have facts to suggest that this is a deliberate crime fabricated to look like an accident. I do not intend to accuse or slander anyone in my statements. The police will sort it out. I make assumptions and insure for the life and health of my family! Of course, it is obvious that Klyukh is angry with Denis, that he did not want to cooperate with him, and Valdemar could not earn any money from this athlete. But this does not give him any right to slander my husband and throw mud at him. And portray this whole terrible incident as a “drunken fight”! As for the drugs and alcohol that Klyuch claims, this is the height of his fantasies! Denis undergoes monthly doping control, which goes to any time and place where the athlete is without notification and takes a doping test. Accordingly, the arguments that the former promoter accuses Denisan of are in no way comparable to the career and profession of my husband! Therefore, it would do well for Klyuch to stop making up all this nonsense and maintain a sense of self-dignity. Denis's condition is currently stable. We pray and hope for the best that Denis will soon return to his full life and see his baby. This is the most important fight in Denis’s life and he will definitely win it! We will ensure that all those responsible will be punished and everyone who took part in the attempt on my husband will answer according to their deserts!

Further, the message was accompanied by a photo of Boytsov’s assistant Gagik after the attack and an SMS message received by Khachatryan two years ago. “Volodya” in the text of the SMS refers to Waldemar Klüch, and we are talking about renewing relations with the former promoter.

As Olga Boytsova told our publication, she is currently provided with security, but she would like to make this statement in order to attract public attention. Let us remind you that Denis Boytsov’s wife and brother deny the version of an accident and have previously stated that a sleeping pill was found in the athlete’s blood.