By Per Ake Persson

Former WBA jr. welterweight champ Andreas Kotelnik has announced his retirement. Kotelnik goes out at 31-4-1 and has been inactive since losing a close call to Devon Alexander in 2010 for the IBF and WBC titles.

 

Kotelnik, from Ukraine, was an exellent amateur and won silver in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and then signed with Universum in Germany. He quickly rose to top level but then followed a number of controversial defeats - and wins as well. Andreas lost a split duke to Souleyman M´Baye in a WBA eliminator in 2004 followed by a disputed loss to Junior Witter in 2005. A draw with M´Baye followed and it wasn´t until 2008 when Kotelnik stopped Gavin Rees that he became WBA champ - a title he defended against Marcos Maidana in a great fight that Kotelnik won on a split decision. Kotelnik lost the title to Amir Khan and that time no-one could argue with the scoring.