| Ričards Bolotņiks | |
| Nickname: | The Lion |
| Weight: | |
| Nationality: | Latvian |
| Birth Date: | 1990 3, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Riga, Latvia |
| Style: | Orthodox |
| Boxrec: | 661423 |
| Total: | 29 |
| Wins: | 20 |
| Draws: | 1 |
| Losses: | 8 |
| Ko: | 8 |
Ričards Bolotņiks (born 24 March 1990) is a Latvian professional boxer who held the WBO European light-heavyweight title from 2019 to 2022.
Bolotņiks played ice hockey when he was younger, but decided to try boxing since he had always wanted to fight.[1] He made his professional debut on 15 August 2013, defeating Pavels Veselovs by first-round knockout (KO) in Riga. In his next seven bouts he won only three times, suffering losses in Germany, England and France. After that he managed a string of six victories from 2015 to 2016, during which he moved up a weight class to cruiserweight. Sitting on a 10–3–1 record, he faced Micki Nielsen in Riga on 27 January 2018, losing by controversial split decision (SD) to end his streak.[2] Five months later he lost again to Thabiso Mchunu in South Africa,[3] and decided to move back down to light-heavyweight.
On 12 October 2019, Bolotņiks defeated Sergei Ekimov (18–0, 9 KO) by unanimous decision (UD) in Riga for the vacant EBP light-heavyweight title, the first of his career.[4] Later that month, he was announced as a participant in The Golden Contract light-heavyweight tournament that secures the winner a two-year, five-fight contract with MTK Global.[5] [6] In the quarter-finals, he matched up against undefeated Belfast native Steven Ward (12–0, 4 KO) at the Brentwood Centre in England on 14 December with his WBO European light-heavyweight title also on the line. Bolotņiks won the fight by first-round technical knockout (TKO) in an upset, flooring the champion three times en route to a new belt and a £5,000 knockout bonus.[7] He retained his title in the semi-finals against Hosea Burton by ten-round UD in Riga on 26 September 2020.[8]
| Result | Record | Opponent | Type | Round, time | Date | Location | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | Loss | 20–8–1 |  Imam Khataev | TKO | 6 (10), | 12 May 2024 |  | ||
| 28 | Win | 20–7–1 |  Tomas Bezvoda | UD | 6 | 3 Dec 2023 | |||
| 27 | Loss | 19–7–1 |  Oleksandr Gvozdyk | TKO | 6 (10), | 6 Apr 2023 |  | ||
| 26 | Win | 19–6–1 |  Hrvoje Sep | UD | 8 | 1 Apr 2022 | |||
| 25 | Loss | 18–6–1 | Joshua Buatsi | KO | 11 (12), | 14 Aug 2021 | |||
| 24 | Win | 18–5–1 | Serge Michel | TKO | 10 (10), | 2 Dec 2020 |  | ||
| 23 | Win | 17–5–1 | Hosea Burton | UD | 10 | 26 Sep 2020 | |||
| 22 | Win | 16–5–1 | Steven Ward | TKO | 1 (10), | 14 Dec 2019 | | ||
| 21 | Win | 15–5–1 | Sergei Ekimov | UD | 12 | 12 Oct 2019 | |||
| 20 | Win | 14–5–1 | Gasan Gasanov | TKO | 6 (8), | 15 Jun 2019 | |||
| 19 | Win | 13–5–1 | Patrick Mendy | MD | 8 | 23 Mar 2019 | |||
| 18 | Win | 12–5–1 |  Zura Mekereshvili | UD | 6 | 6 Oct 2018 | |||
| 17 | Loss | 11–5–1 | Thabiso Mchunu | TKO | 6 (10), | 23 Jun 2018 | |||
| 16 | Win | 11–4–1 |  Alejandro Emilio Valori | KO | 1 (8), | 17 Mar 2018 | |||
| 15 | Loss | 10–4–1 | Micki Nielsen | 8 | 27 Jan 2018 | ||||
| 14 | Win | 10–3–1 | César Córdoba | TKO | 1 (6), | 12 Nov 2016 | |||
| 13 | Win | 9–3–1 | Reinis Porozovs | UD | 8 | 31 Jul 2016 | |||
| 12 | Win | 8–3–1 | Giorgi Tevdorashvili | UD | 8 | 14 May 2016 | |||
| 11 | Win | 7–3–1 |  Jarek Prusak | KO | 2 (8), | 21 Feb 2016 | |||
| 10 | Win | 6–3–1 | Reinis Porozovs | UD | 6 | 5 Dec 2015 | |||
| 9 | Win | 5–3–1 | Andrejs Pokumeiko | UD | 6 | 10 Oct 2015 | |||
| 8 | Loss | 4–3–1 |  Kevin Buval | UD | 6 | 22 May 2015 | | ||
| 7 | Win | 4–2–1 | Lukas Ablozevicius | UD | 4 | 28 Mar 2015 | |||
| 6 | Win | 3–2–1 |  Pascal Villeneuve | 6 | 31 Jan 2015 | | |||
| 5 | Win | 3–2 | Andrejs Pokumeiko | 4 | 6 Dec 2014 | ||||
| 4 | Loss | 2–2 | Andreas Evangelou | TKO | 4 (6), | 12 Jul 2014 | | ||
| 3 | Win | 2–1 | Arturs Perihs | TKO | 1 (4), | 18 May 2014 | |||
| 2 | Loss | 1–1 | Abel Mikaelyan | 3 (4), | 23 Nov 2013 | ||||
| 1 | Win | 1–0 | Pavels Veselovs | 1 (4), | 15 Aug 2013 |