By Per Ake Persson

Former WBA "regular" super middleweight champ Dimitri Sartison, 29-2, has again had surgery on his right knee and will be sidelined until at least October.

 

On April 21, Sartison was stopped by Karoly Balzsay in a great fight for the WBA "regular" super middleweight crown and wore a knee protector but probably had problems moving.

 

Sartison´s reign as champ was far from happy but he did retain the title against Khoren Gevor in July 2010 and a fight against Brian Magee was almost on for December of that year but fell through when the Irishman opted to fight Lucian Bute instead. Sartison was then lined up to fight Robert Stieglitz in April of 2011 but injured his knee badly. After that came a planned defense of the title against Stas Kashtanov in August but Dimitri had to pull out and Karoly Balzsay replaced him. Sartison was stripped of the title but had the right to take on the winner of Balzsay - Kashtanov.

 

Sartison was able to return to the ring in November and beat Arturs Kulikauskas but had to have more surgery on the knee.

 

Dimitri came back again earlier this year and wore a huge knee protector when he took on Carlos Caicedo and while he won it was a far from an impressive performance from the German-based Russian.

 

Against Balzsay he produced a much better performance in a fight of the year candidate but lost and now faces a long way back.