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July 25th, 2008
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Taking it on the chin

After loss in title belt bout, Lukáš Konečný seeks a rematch

By František Bouc
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 7th, 2008 issue

ČTK
Lukáš Konečný was distraught and angered by the judges' ruling after his April 26 loss to Sergiy Dzinziruk in Dresden.
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Tough guys don’t cry. But apparently no one whispered that hoary aphorism to Lukáš Konečný, the first Czech boxer with a chance to clinch a professional world championship belt.
Minutes after his April 26 fight against the Ukraine’s Sergiy Dzinziruk, the defending champion of the World Boxing Organization’s (WBO) super welterweight division, in Dresden, Germany, Konečný sat down with a group of reporters.
He had just lost the match on points, with one judge calling the fight a tie and two others awarding the majority decision to Dzinziruk. Konečný was bitter about the referees’ verdict, saying that had the title match been fought in Prague, it would have been his. Then, he broke down in tears.
“I was holding him tight, but those bastards let me down,” Konečný said of the referees.
Konečný, who became a professional boxer in 2001 after a successful career as an amateur, had 38 bouts in the professional ring by the time he took on Dzinziruk. Of those, the 29-year-old fighter had won 36, with 18 decisions by knockout.
In the 31-year-old Dzindziruk, however, Konečný was facing an even more accomplished fighter. The Ukrainian was unbeaten in the professional ring, winning all of his 34 fights, 22 of them by knockout. He has held the WBO title since December 2005 and had defended his title three times prior to Konečný’s challenge.
Before the fight, Konečný said he was well aware that referees tend to favor champions.
“It’s a fair thing,” he said. “If I want to win the world championship belt, I have to fight more than an equal fight. I’m ready for that.”
Konečný had been preparing for the challenge since September. Last summer, he told The Prague Post that a chill ran down his spine when he learned that he’d have the chance to fight for a world championship belt.
He knew then that winning the belt wouldn’t come easy.
“[Dzindziruk] is much taller than I am and he’s got long arms. He’s in great physical condition and fights very hard,” Konečný said. “Some experts say he’s even better than the legendary U.S. fighter Oscar de la Hoya.”
Months of preparation, which was further prolonged by two postponements of the fight due to injuries, helped Konečný enter the fight in top shape. He said that he had never before been so fit. He was ready to win the belt.
“I’ve dreamt of it since I was about 8 years old,” he said.
Counting on a rematch
Apart from the actual training, Konečný also worked to create a “home crowd” in Dresden. He bought 300 tickets in the 4,500-seat arena and distributed them among his fans.
Despite his early respect for Dzinziruk, Konečný gave him an equal fight from the very beginning.
“I was surprised how smoothly the fight was going. I held to my tactics and he was unable to hurt me,” Konečný said.
By the 12th-and-final round, Konečný said there was no thought in his mind that he was going to lose the match.
“Dzinziruk and I were looking into each other’s eyes, and it was obvious that he was not sure what the referees’ verdict would be,” Konečný said.
In the end, it was not the fight but the referees’ call that knocked the Czech boxer out. While a referee from Puerto Rico saw a 114-114 draw, a German referee gave Dzinziruk a 115-113 win and an American saw a 118-110 victory for the Ukrainian.
“The American must’ve been blind, or he watched a different bout,” Konečný groused.
The disparity between the referees’ calls has prompted Konečný and his German team, SES, to file a protest with the WBO.
“It’s clear that the result will remain, but the WBO could order a rematch,” Konečný said. “I’d have a great chance in that.”
Konečný’s team used a similar strategy after one of his two defeats in the professional ring so far. In 2004, following a defeat to the Spanish fighter Ruben Varon Fernandez, an SES protest prompted the European Boxing Union (EBU) to order a rematch. The Spanish boxer refused to take on Konečný again and lost his EBU belt.
“I’d be happy for a rematch, ideally in Prague,” Konečný said. “Should things develop in Prague as they did in Dresden, I would hardly lose.”

František Bouc can be reached at fbouc@praguepost.com


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