By Luke Furman

The WBO world champion at middleweight, Dmitry Pirog (19-0, 15 KOs) is happy with the way his career played out in 2011. He defended his championship belt twice. In March he won on points over Javier Francisco Maciel, and in September he defeated Gennady Martirosyan. Recently, the WBO appointed an official challenger for his title, Ukraine's Maksim Bursak (24-0-1, 10 KOs). Pirog won the WBO crown in July 2010, when he unexpectedly knocked out Daniel Jacobs in the fifth round of their Las Vegas clash.

"I feel, as was the case in 2010, the current year can be assessed as successful. It was significant for me because of the fact that I had two fights where I defended the world title and both of them were held in Russia. Given the comfort and convenience, this option is better for me than holding fights in the United States. The official contender for the WBO world title is Ukrainian Maxim Bursak and I have to defend my title against him. I have the right to make a voluntary defense and it is possible that I will exercise this right," Pirog said,

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.