Alexander Viktorovych "Sascha" Dimitrenko (Ukrainian: Олександр Вікторович Димитренко; born 5 July 1982) is a Ukrainian-born German former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2019, and held the European heavyweight title from 2010 to 2011.

Representing Russia, he won the 2000 World Junior Championships in the super-heavyweight division at the age of eighteen,[1] with German promoter Klaus-Peter Kohl offering him a deal immediately afterwards.

Dimitrenko signed with Kohl's Universum promotion company and moved to Hamburg to begin his professional career.

[2] Dimitrenko made his professional debut on 8 December 2001, stopping Marcus Johnson in four rounds on the undercard of the fight between Vitali Klitschko and Ross Puritty.

[3] Standing at an imposing 2.01 metres (6 ft 7 in), he was widely regarded as one of the top contenders for a future world title opportunity.

[7] [8] The bout was scheduled to happen on 31 July 2004, but Purrity pulled out after suffering an elbow injury during training camp while sparring with Juan Carlos Gomez.

[16][17][14] In his next outing, on 5 March 2005, he faced hard-hitting American prospect, Chris Koval, on the undercard of Felix Sturm vs. Bert Schenk.

The bout went full ten rounds, with Dimitrenko being declared the winner by a lopsided unanimous decision with scores 98–91 (twice) and 98–92.

[19][20] This was bettered on 2 July 2005, when Dimitrenko picked up two vacant regional championships — IBF and WBO Inter-Continental heavyweight titles — after a second-round knockout of Andreas Sidon.

[21] Dimitrenko then agreed to face Vaughn Bean on September 28, 2005 as part of the card dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of former world heavyweight champion Max Schmeling, with the main event of the night being the WBO world heavyweight title fight between Luan Krasniqi and Lamon Brewster.

[22] 31-year old Bean, known for having competitive bouts with world champions Evander Holyfield and Michael Moorer and having only been stopped by Vitali Klitschko, was considered Dimitrenko's toughest challenge to date.

In the opening rounds, Dimitrenko was mostly throwing straight punches, struggling with Bean's movement and counterpunching style as well as attacks to the body.

In the eighth round, Dimitrenko staggered Bean with a left hook and continued to apply pressure on his opponent, going back-and-forth between attacks to the head and body.

[23] [24] After defeating Chad Van Sickle by second-round TKO,[25] Dimitrenko agreed to face Argentine boxer Gonzalo Omar Basile on 28 October 2006.

[30][32] In his last fight of 2006, Dimitrenko faced an experienced American journeyman Billy Zumbrun on 18 November 2006, only three weeks after beating Basile.

[38] Dimitrenko then had two stay-busy fights in the first half of 2007, defeating American heavyweights Danny Batchelder and Malcolm Tann by mid-fight TKOs.

Hoffmann, who had previously faced fighters like Vitali Klitschko, Luan Krasniqi and Henry Akinwande and was known for his durability, had never been stopped inside the distance coming into this bout[42][43] and was expected to be a tough challenge for Dimitrenko and an opportunity to elevate Dimitrenko's popularity in Germany.

Dimitrenko then threw a series of unanswered shots, prompting the referee to stop the bout after Hoffmann was dropped again, with 36 seconds left to the end of the fight.

[49] [50] Many observers saw this fight as a big step up in competition for Dimitrenko and Krasniqi's last chance to regain his stock after losses to Lamon Brewster and Tony Thompson.

Krasniqi was unable to get up at the count of ten, prompting the referee to stop the fight and declaring Dimitrenko the winner by third-round KO.

[71] Looking to regain his stock, Dimitrenko agreed to face Luan Krasniqi in a rematch on 28 November 2009 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Dimitrenko dismissed these criticisms, claiming that Krasniqi, despite the long stretch of inactivity, was still a dangerous, highly experienced fighter.

[72] Three weeks before the scheduled date, Krasniqi was forced to pull out due to sprained Achilles tendon on his right leg.

[75] Dimitrenko expressed doubt over the alleged injury: "[Harrison] was wildly celebrating the victory, jumping and waving his arms.

[78] Eventually Dimitrenko agreed to face Dennis Bakhtov (33–5, 23 KOs) for the vacant European heavyweight title on 30 July 2010 in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

[81][82] Two successful defences were made in 2011 against British journeyman Michael Sprott and former world title challenger Albert Sosnowski.

[85][86] After two defenses of the European title, Dimitrenko agreed to face undefeated Bulgarian prospect Kubrat Pulev on 5 May 2012 on the undercard of Marco Huck vs. Ola Afolabi.

Many observers were giving both fighters an even chance to win, and expected the winner of this bout to fight for the title in the near future.

[97] Without a prominent promoter and trained by a local gym coach, Dimitrenko scored two uninspiring decisions against journeymen before entering a long stretch of inactivity.