Berlin, Oct 18. (dpa/GNA) – Former Russian boxer Denis Boytsov, who was seen as a potential opponent of world champion Wladimir Klitschko before his career ended after a severe and yet to solved 2015 accident in Berlin, has died at the age of 40, state news agency TASS has said, citing his father.
The report said a blood clot had caused the death of Boytsov, who spent many years in Germany and started his career there.
Known as the “Russian Tyson” in reference to American great Mike Tyson, Boytsov won 36 of his 37 bouts, 27 of them by knock-out.
In May 2015, he was found unconscious in a Berlin subway tunnel. He was placed in an induced coma and underwent emergency surgery on severe head and hand injuries.
Further operations and a long rehabilitation process followed, but Boytsov never made a full recovery and retired from boxing.
The exact circumstances of the incident were never determined.
Boytsov was the mandatory challenger to world champion Klitschko at the World Boxing Organization for a while in 2013, before losing that status.
His last fight was in March 2015, when he beat Irineu Beato Costa Jr of Brazil who retired in round two.
GNA