It hardly gets any closer than this. At today’s purse bid for the European heavyweight championship between Alexander Dimitrenko and Denis Bakhtov in Rome, ARENA outbid Universum by only 200,- Euros. ARENA’s offer of 157,000.- Euro were slightly enough to make sure that Universum (156,800.- Euro) cannot stage the fight as planned on their last show with TV partner ZDF on July 31st. Russian promoter German Titov won the purse bid by offering 260,000.- Euros.

"German was surprised when he heard that he won the purse bid“, said Ahmet Öner. "Obviously he had expected that Universum would place a higher offer to make sure that they get the fight. If German cannot set up the fight in Russia within the time frame given by the EBU we will be happy to step in with our bid.“

Dimitrenko and Bakhtov fight for the title that has been vacated by Audley Harrison who is hoping for a world title shot against David Haye or either Klitschko. Dimitrenko was Harrison’s mandatory challenger. Bakhtov won his right to fight for the vacant title by beating Steffen Kretschmann at an ARENA show in March in Hamburg.